Thiruvananthapuram: With this year's Onam - the traditional harvest festival -- just days ahead, the price of flowers skyrocketed in the major flower markets in Kerala.
Trucks and other vehicles loaded with flowers have begun arriving from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka into the local markets of the state to meet the rising demand. Kerala sources major chunk of flowers from farms in the neighbouring states to meet its festival demands to decorate homes with floral carpets.
Residents in Thiruvananthapuram depend mainly on flowers arriving from Thovala in Tamil Nadu's Kanyakumari district, popularly known as the 'floral basket'.
Around 35 farms in Thovala supply a major chunk of flowers especially 'arali', 'mulla' and 'chendumulla' varieties to help local residents here create floral carpets during Onam, the ten-day extravaganza.
Flowers also arrive from Aralvaimozhi, Kattadimala, Dindigul and Satyamangalam in Tamil Nadu and Bengaluru and Gundalpet in Karnataka, where flowers are cultivated on commercial basis, market sources said.
Spiraling prices of different varieties of flowers have caused no effect in the state's dependency in this regard, the sources said.
Of them, 'mulla' (jasmine) is the costliest, Rs 600-800 per kg, Santhosh, a flower vendor in Chalai market here said.
"Arali, which is available in red, pink and white shades, has also a large number of takers. It costs around Rs 200 per kg. While vadamulla costs Rs 150 per kilo gram, pichi (a variety of jasmine)- Rs 400 kilo gram, lotus- Rs 10 per piece." The price would increase many folds in the coming days, he said.
According to mythology, Kerala was once ruled by "Mahabali" also known as Maveli, a generous Asura (demon) king. During his reign, everyone was equal and deception and theft were unheard of.
The Devas (Gods), who were envious of Mahabali's popularity, managed to get him pushed down to the netherworld with the support of Lord Vishnu. But he was allowed to return to Kerala on Thiruonam day of the month of 'Chingam' of the Malayalam calendar every year and Keralites celebrate Onam as the homecoming of the legendary king.