30% less flowers at Kaas Pathar this year

If you wanted to see the rainbow of blossoms at Satara's Kaas plateau, then you would have to be disappointed this year. Scanty rainfall and delayed monsoon led to less flowers blooming at the plateau, also known as Kaas Pathar, a major tourist attraction. While the flowering usually starts in August, this year it prolonged to September second week.

Kaas pathar, declared as a World Natural Heritage Site, has over 850 varieties of flowers blooming every monsoon.

Speaking with iamin about the plateau, A Patil, Range Forest Officer, Satara Forest Division said, "The Kaas stretches at over 1,000 acres and has some beautiful variety of flowers including Vayutara, Kaasa, Kumudini which are major tourist attractions. There is a footfall of thousands each year, starting from August to mid-October".

Suraj Patil, 28, who has been visiting Kaas Plateau for the past few years said: "I go to this place specially for the water lilies, but during August there was no flowering. This is something I witnessed for the first time in the last four years of my visit".

According to the forest department, there was reduced visitor footfall this year because of the delay in the flowering. "The monsoon begins by July and flowering starts in August normally. This year, it was delayed and hence the flowering occurred in September. The intermittent rains also affected the flowering and damaged the crops. This resulted in almost 30% decrease in flowering this year, much less than previous years. Also, as October heat was also high, the flower beds dried by mid-October, keeping only a 15 day window for tourists to enjoy the beauty of the flowers," added Patil.

Most of the tourists and nature lovers waited for the blooming of Karvi, which happens every seven years, but in vain. "Very few Karvi flowers could bloom this year," Patil said. Karvy is a rare purple - blue flower found in the Kaas plateau region of Western Ghats.

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