Flower bloom declines at Kas Plateau; online booking closes

Satara: The flower bloom at Kas Plateau, situated 25 km west from Satara city in Maharashtra, a UNESCO Natural World Heritage Site, has witnessed a drop in the flower yield this year, and the annual flower festival is about to be concluded. Seeing the low production of flowers, the Satara Forest Department and Kas Plateau Executive Committee have decided to close online bookings of flowers.

However, the spot bookings are likely to continue till the weekend, reducing the ticket prices from 150 per person to Rs 50. Naresh Purandare, a resident of Pune, said, “I tried booking online tickets for the weekend to visit Kas Plateau, but the official website displayed a message, ‘The bloom of flowers on Kas Plateau has decreased, and online booking has been closed.”

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Dattatray Kirdat, the deputy head of the Kas Plateau executive committee, stated that the flower festival got underway on September 5 and will conclude in a few more days. He said that the bloom of flowers was high this year, enticing a massive crowd, but recent rainfall did all the damage, and many flowers faded earlier than expected, so the production came down drastically.

Despite uncertainty, several flowers, such as Smithia, Sonki, and Karvi, are still blooming, and tourists are trying to visit Kumudini Lake, a popular spot owing to the abundance of Kumudini flowers, which are expected to last a few more days.

“This year, the rainfall received over the plateau was on the higher side, which resulted in flowers withering early,” added Kirdat.