Lucknowites’ early morning visit to a mango orchard

On a recent cloudy morning in the city, several Lucknowites woke up early and went for a mango orchard visit at the Habibullah Estate orchard in Malihabad. The 7th UP Mango festival saw an eco-friendly set up and a well-organised event by the UP Mango Festival team led by Jyotsna Kaur Habibullah.
Ajita Agarwal and Prem Lata Gulati (BCCL/ Vishnu Jaiswal)
The event brought more than 300 people, groups of friends and families out of their homes into the orchard to eat mangoes, enjoy fun activities related to the fruit, relish a delicious brunch and revel in nature at its best.
Interestingly, tourists from the US, Columbia, France as well as from parts of India like Jaipur, Mumbai, Kanpur and more, participated with great enthusiasm in the event.
(L) Sudeti Chaturvedi, Jai Lalchandani and Jahanvi Mishra (R) Jyotsna Kaur Habibullah (BCCL/ Vishnu Jaiswal)
Claudia from Columbia, who is on holiday in India, found the festival enthralling and said there were a lot of similarities between the mangoes here and back in Columbia. In fact, she also loved climbing the trees, which according to her was the best part about the visit. Children too had a field day in the beautiful outdoors, enjoying climbing and swinging on mango trees, pottery making, watching artisans at work, craft, horse cart rides as well as horse rides and much more.
(L-R) Aanchal Jain, Shivani Dubey, Vanshika Agarwal & Shivi Awasthi (BCCL/ Vishnu Jaiswal)
The biodiversity orchard walk conducted by owner Shahid Iqbal Abbasi gave visitors an insight into how mangoes are grown and the different types of mangoes grown in this region.
Atif Hanif and Risha Alvi (BCCL/ Vishnu Jaiswal)
Malini, a Lucknow resident said, “At last some place where I can introduce my children to the simple joys of our childhood, savour quantities and qualities of mangoes we never get in the city and a clean fresh environment. To swing on a mango tree is fabulous. We have loved spending time here with friends and family. May we have plenty more festivals like these.”
(L-R) Muskan, Khushi and Kavita (BCCL/ Vishnu Jaiswal)
Jyotsna Kaur Habibullah, one of the organisers of the Mango Festival, said, “I am thrilled to bring back the festival. It has become an annual event now. We look forward to keeping this integral part of our culture alive and bring more tourism and investment to Lucknow, as well as benefit the farmers and local rural economy.”
GO GREEN WITH AAM: Gabriel (L) & Richika (BCCL/ Vishnu Jaiswal)
Visitors at the orchard posed with props for the shutterbug (BCCL/ Vishnu Jaiswal)
(L) Mona and Jasdeep (R) Jasmin (BCCL/ Vishnu Jaiswal)
(L) Anuradha Agarwal (R) Amar Habibullah (BCCL/ Vishnu Jaiswal)