Karnataka - Bangalore

Day of the brinjal

BANGALORE: Some of these are rarely cultivated and are rarely available in the market. Different varieties of the brinjal, grown in the backyard of most rural households, was displayed at the “Brinjal Festival” at Lal Bagh on Sunday.

The festival, which was inaugurated by actor Tara, was an effort to raise awareness on indigenous brinjal varieties and the ill-effects of using bt brinjal.

In all, 52 local varieties of brinjal grown in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh were displayed at the festival. Some of the varieties included tundu badane, chandu badane and kadu bulla badane rampura badane. “When the country has such diversity in brinjal, why should the bt variety be allowed in the market? Entry of bt variety will affect the rich diversity,” Krishna Prasad of Sahaja Samruddhi said. The State Horticulture Department is planning to seek Geographical Indication (GI) tag for hirangere and gulla varieties. Both varieties were on display at the festival.

Also on display were 23 dishes made from brinjal as well as the recipes for the dishes.

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