Flowery Ichankhu Narayan

KATHMANDU: Tihar, also known as Deepawali and Yamapanchak, began from Today. Also known as the festival of flowers, Tihar is one of the greatest festival of Hinduism.

People clean their houses and decorate them with flowers, especially marigold flower as a part of celebrating the festival. As Tihar has begun from Friday, farmers are busy plucking flowers, traders selling them in the market and public decorating their houses.

In fact, for the first time after several years, the country will not import garlands for Tihar this year, thanks to surge in domestic production and projected fall in demand of flower this Tihar due to COVID-19.

As per Floriculture Association of Nepal (FAN), traders are in no mood to import flowers for Tihar this season. In the past, millions rupee worth flowers had to be imported from India during Tihar when demand for different varieties of flowers witnesses whopping rise.

FAN expects that Kathmandu Valley will demand almost 1.5 million of garlands for Tihar this year against 2.5 million units of garlands sold during last Tihar.