October 28: People of Panchthar district have noticed that the local species of marigold are on the verge of extinction. They say the flowers with big petals that used to bloom during Dashain and Tihar have almost disappeared.

Tanka Maya Ghimire, 65, of Falgunanda Rural Municipality-3 reminiscences about the marigold blooming season, saying, “The flowers used to be huge and they lasted for a longer period. But flowers these days don’t have such characteristics.”

Another local Shantiram Ghimire said that flowers like marigold, chrysanthemum and globe amaranth used bloom across the fields during the time of Tihar but these days the flowers either bloom sooner or later than expected.

The usage of hybrid flowers has increase due to the untimely blooming of the local flowers, according to the residents of the district.

Buddhi Bahadur Limbu shared he is going to celebrate Tihar with artificial flowers as the natural flowers are not the same as before. He added that the petals of the flowers in the recent years.

Earlier, the flowers used to bloom just before Tihar and lasted till the second week of December, according to the elders of the district. But in the recent days, they noted that there is no specific timeframe for the hybrid flowers to bloom. The villagers fear that the local species flowers will be extinct if proper attention is not given for its preservation.