”I visited the festival with the hope of getting enough oranges at a reasonable rate but things have change here,” L Sharathandra,Proprietor of Ratna Fruit India, one of the eight fruit processing units in Imphal which produces bottled orange squash in Imphal told Eastern Panorama. Sharatchandra whose unit requires not less than 10 metric tons of orange in a season returned home with 3 tons of orange as this year’s rate of Rs 16 per kg is much higher than last year’s price tag of Rs 12 per kg.

The reason behind the unavailability of oranges in this year’s festival is the recent holding of first ever Orange growers’ meet at Phoklong village under Tamenglong’s Tousem sub-division, reservation of oranges in the orchards by small time traders and lack of the proper road and communication. Besides these, the growers in Nungba, Khoupum, Tamei and Tousem areas of the district sell their fruits to nearby places including the neighbouring Nagaland and Jiribam at a profitable rate. 

In view of the latest trend of business, observers in Imphal suggested that “the time has come for our authorities to change their strategy to organize such a festival of fruits in the future.” A few years back, over 1.5 lakh orange trees grown in Tamenglong’s 50 different villages had a production record of as many as 52,41,850 oranges, according to Horticulture Development Society,Tamenglong(Host)sources.

Tamenglong contributes over 50 per cent of the state’s annual total orange production of nearly 10,000 to 11,000 metric tons. Around 3,838 hectares of land are under orange cultivation in Manipur.

Hafizuddin Khan, District Horticulture Officer however argues,” there is no shortage of oranges, many cultivators are yet to pluck their fruits from the orchards”.

”We’ve spent Rs 1 lakh on cash awards to promote orange growers this time, besides giving the participants Rs 2000 each.” In fact three growers, Ringsinglung of Wairangba village, P R Abon of Dailong, R Kamlung Panmei of L Pabram were given best grower prizes with cash awards of Rs 50,000, Rs 30,000 and Rs 20,000 respectively.

According to the experts, another advantage of the regular holding of orange festival in the region is that it helps in minimizing the large scale jhumming cultivation in Manipur. 

Though the first ever Orange festival was held in 2001 at Tamenglong district headquarters, the beauty contest such as Orange Queen contest has been organized for the past five years with much fanfare soon after the festival of the district became a state level fest in 2005.

In this year’s Orange Queen Contest, Miss Aartina Huidrom, a student of G P Women’s College in Imphal walked away with the coveted Orange Queen 2008 title in a colourful beauty pageant defeating 27 other Manipuri belles. The event was organized at Tamenglong district headquarters, around 159 km west of the state capital as part of the Orange Festival. 

Nineteen year old Aartina who aspires to take up mass communication, also won the Miss beautiful smile title during the various sub-title contests. This talented girl from Kwakeithel Akham Leikai in Imphal’s West District went home with a cash prize of Rs 50,000 which was handed over by Manipur Horticulture and Tribal Development Minister D D Thaisii. 

Her companion and a student of Liberal College, Luwangsangbam in Imphal Grace Kamei, a resident of Marangjing under Tamenglong’s Noney town bagged the first runners up title while gorgeous Soibam Italy, a resident of Manipur Chief Minister O Ibobi’s native Thoubal district was awarded the second runners up title.

Miss Italy had won this year’s first runner up title in Miss Kut Contest held on November 1, 2008. Tamenglong MLA and Vice-Chairman of the Hill Areas Committee Khangthuanang Panmei and Tamei MLA Awangbow Newmai handed over their cash prizes of Rs 30,000 and Rs 20,000 during the occasion.

Other beauties who won various subtitles during the night long brain and beauty test include A Diana-Miss Photogenic, Anupama Heikham - Miss Congeniality, Yumnam Rangita - Miss Catwalk, Lily Lamhoijang - Miss beautiful hair, Athing Newmai - Miss beautiful eyes. 

Braving the chill and windy winter weather at the dusty local ground of this picturesque hill station till late midnight, a panel of judges who work in diverse fields scrutinized them through three rounds of competition.

The rock show led by Jengam and Alvina Gonson, a sequence of dances by the local youths and artistes of Manipur film academy were the main fillers of the much awaited beauty contest of Tamenglong town.

The presence of Manipur’s prominent celebrities which included Danny and Kamala during the Orange Queen show happened to be another crowd puller of the night as they shared their acting dialogue and song sequences to the responsive Tamenglong audience.

Sobhapati Samom