Koraput: Coffee plants have started flowering in various gardens in Koraput district and are blanketed with beautiful white sheets of blossoms, the usually green gardens draw beelines of nature lovers.
Interestingly, this annual scenic phenomenon is short-lived as coffee blossoms wilt just three days after they bloom. As the climate of Koraput is conducive for coffee cultivation, several plantations can be found in Koraput, Dasmantapur, Padua, Laxmipur, Ankadeli, Lamtaput, Semiliguda, Pottangi, Boipariguda areas of the district.
Upendra Kumar Shah, Public Relations Officer of the Koraput Coffee Board, said that entire coffee gardens get covered in a thick coat of white flowers to welcome the tourists during these days. According to Shah, all the coffee plantations normally flower within a week of the first rain in the month of March.
The aroma of coffee flowers attracts bees and many birds to the gardens. Following the footsteps of Karnataka, if the itinerant beekeepers are encouraged to keep honeybees inside the coffee plantations, better quality coffee honey can also be produced from these flowers, said Sushant Kumar Panda, a coffee entrepreneur from Rajput village.
On the other hand, irregular rainfall in Koraput district during the month of March affects the flowering of plants. If the government takes steps to install sprinklers for irrigation, the coffee plants would blossom on time and better quality coffee could be produced, said Panda.
PNN
