Jampui orange lures 5000 tourists in a month

Agartala, Nov 23(UNI) More than 5000 tourists from across the country have visited Jampui hill,the orange producing valley of the Northeast along Tripura-Mizoram border, in a month.

According to report, the orange production has increased about six per cent this year as three hactres of additional land came under cultivation with the advice of National Research Centre for Citrus (NRCC), Nagpur.

Report further said, about 32.36 mt orange had been produced on 5270 hectare of land which attracts large number of outsiders with its virgin forests, peaceful and eco-friendly ambience while offers an ideal opportunity for leisure tourism.

With the steady loss of orange production in Jampui range, the state government had sought NRCC's intervention for disease-free planting material of orange and its multiplication to establish mother block of disease-free sweet oranges orchards using STG technique in 2000.

The initial study of NRCC revealed that the gardens had been facing the problem due to natural decay of the orange plants that needs re-plantation as well as standardisation of external and internal quality and harvesting maturity for 'Ambia' (spring blossom) crop of oranges.

Besides, replantation of the gardens in a phase manner NRCC scientists also suggested developing eco-friendly non-hazardous pre and post harvest treatment to extend shelf or storage life and it yielded very good result.

Talking to UNI here, NRCC Director Dr Shyam Singh said that orange gardens in Jampui hill were facing serious threat of Canker, one of the most widespread and serious diseases of citrus in the country, especially in Acid lime and orange cultivation.

The diseased plants were characterised by the occurrence of conspicuous erumpent lesions that develop on leaves, twigs and fruits and Canker lesions start as pinpoint spots and attain a diameter of 3-10 mm, Dr Singh stated adding a yellowish halo often surrounds the lesion. Severe infection results in defoliation, dieback and premature fruit drop what Jampui have been facing during the decade.

Canker causes fruit losses from abscission and non-marketable quality due to lesions because the canker-affected fruits do not attract the consumers on large scale due to unimpressive colour and shape though the taste remains unaffected, Dr Singh pointed out.

The luxuriant forests of Jampui Hill, about 3000 ft above the sea level, the premier one among the six principal hill ranges of Tripura provides a life time exhilarating experience for the tourists. It is also called- 'permanent seat of spring'.

According to Tourism department records more than five thousand domestic and foreign tourists visited Jampui in the past two month.

Jampui consists of cluster of tribal villages and the home for colourful Lushai and Reang tribes and famous for its charming landscape and bracing climate, which lies in the western side of the Mizoram and southern part of Chittagong hill tracts of Bangladesh.

The winter seems to be the ideal season for Jampui hill, just land up at the heart of the nature, take a deep breath and wink eyes for a moment, open up and at once devour the most enchanting and a never-seen-before beauty.

While the sun sinks, colours change and rearrange themselves every moment in quick succession, a sweet gentle breeze flows down the valleys without a stop soothing all human pains.

At the hill slopes abundant cultivation of orange, only the major means of sustenance to the inhabitants helps to transform the colour of the world into a unique synchronization of green and orange to make it golden.

In the early morning, to watch on snow-white-marvel-valley like shawl of widespread fog over the valley from the tourist lodge at Vanghmun is a spectacular view to enthrall one's heart, stated Miroslav Tadic, a Serbian tourist who landed Agartala today spending five days in Jampui.

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