'Tadoba Festival' kicks off at Chandrapur district

Maharashtra Forest Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar on Friday inaugurated the 'Tadoba Festival' that seeks to promote wildlife conservation, sustainable tourism and local heritage.

The three-day festival, named after a tiger reserve in Chandrapur district, has been organised at Chanda Club Ground.

A slew of programmes, including a musical concert by singer Shreya Ghosal, performance by Grammy Award-winning music composer Ricky Kej and Guinness World Record attempt by potted sapling with shaping Hindi word 'Bharatmata', will be held, informed a senior forest department officer.

The event kicked-off with an interactive session on man-animal conflict mitigation and a short film on the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) was also telecast during the inaugural ceremony. Later, a nature quiz was organised for guides and naturalists of TATR.

A coffee table book on TATR was released by Mungantiwar, who is also the guardian minister of Chandrapur district.

A 'kavi sammelan' (gathering of poets) presided over by poet Kumar Vishwas and performance by music composer Kej will be highlights of the event on Saturday. Veteran actor Hema Malini and her troupe will perform classical dance at the closing ceremony on Sunday, said the officer.