Shirui Lily Festival

In News

• Manipur celebrates four-day fest featuring dance, food, music, traditional games and much fanfare, at its heart, is the beautiful Shirui Lily, a unique species of ground lily that is found only in Manipur. 

About the Festival 

• Discovery:
  • It was English botanist Frank Kingdon-Ward who discovered the three-foot tall, bluish-pink bell-shaped lily in Manipur for research in 1946.
  • The Lily won the merit prize from the 1948 Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) at a flower show in London because of how unique it was.
• About the Festival:
  • The Manipur government declared Shirui Lily as the state flower in 1989, today it is considered endangered owing to intense tourist activities and invasion of an invasive bamboo species.
  • The Shirui Lily Festival aims at increasing awareness about the plant.
• What is unique about Shirui Lily?
  • It is special because it is a species of ground lily found exclusively in the Shirui Hills, located about 18 km from the district headquarters of Ukhrul, which is home to the Tangkhul Naga tribe.
  • In other words, it cannot be transplanted anywhere else in the world.

Source: IE