Ugly end to the lovely flower show

Ugly end to the lovely flower show
New Indian Express

BANGALORE: The last day of the Independence Day horticultural show at Lalbagh botanical garden witnessed a rampage that left behind much damage as the surging crowd of visitors ran amok in the carefully pruned garden.

The officials had a tough time managing more than two lakh visitors on the Independence Day. The 12 feet high cast iron barricade surrounding the Glass House was broken down.

The centre of attraction was the Glass House where the flower show was held. The heavy rush to Lalbagh led to a traffic snarl near MTR hotel and Shantinagar bus stand. Every inch of space in Lalbagh was crowded with visitors.

The Lalbagh officials had to throw open all the four gates to the unmanageable crowd and they eventually gave up on collecting tickets. Around 50,000 visitors entered the garden without tickets.

The horticultural staff, security men, policemen and staff from the Sainik Welfare had a tough time till noon, but after that the situation went beyond their control. It was only by Tuesday evening that normalcy returned.

The day being a national holiday, a rush of crowd started pouring inside the garden. There was a queue of nearly 2 km to reach the Glass House, which finally erupted in chaos as visitors poured.

Few of the low-lying branches of trees were also damaged. It includes two mango trees and one ficus benga lemsis (Hala). According to the director of horticultural department, G K Vasant Kumar, the situation went out of control.

‘‘The parking space was not sufficient though we allowed entry from the east and south gate.’’ He said that the visitors and hawkers littered the gardens. ‘‘The hawkers added to the chaos.

They pushed their goods amidst the crowd and littered the place. Additional sweepers have been appointed to clean the place.Ugly end to the lovely flower show
Thursday August 17 2006 08:33 IST

BANGALORE: The last day of the Independence Day horticultural show at Lalbagh botanical garden witnessed a rampage that left behind much damage as the surging crowd of visitors ran amok in the carefully pruned garden.

The officials had a tough time managing more than two lakh visitors on the Independence Day. The 12 feet high cast iron barricade surrounding the Glass House was broken down.

The centre of attraction was the Glass House where the flower show was held. The heavy rush to Lalbagh led to a traffic snarl near MTR hotel and Shantinagar bus stand. Every inch of space in Lalbagh was crowded with visitors.

The Lalbagh officials had to throw open all the four gates to the unmanageable crowd and they eventually gave up on collecting tickets. Around 50,000 visitors entered the garden without tickets.

The horticultural staff, security men, policemen and staff from the Sainik Welfare had a tough time till noon, but after that the situation went beyond their control. It was only by Tuesday evening that normalcy returned.

The day being a national holiday, a rush of crowd started pouring inside the garden. There was a queue of nearly 2 km to reach the Glass House, which finally erupted in chaos as visitors poured.

Few of the low-lying branches of trees were also damaged. It includes two mango trees and one ficus benga lemsis (Hala). According to the director of horticultural department, G K Vasant Kumar, the situation went out of control.

‘‘The parking space was not sufficient though we allowed entry from the east and south gate.’’ He said that the visitors and hawkers littered the gardens. ‘‘The hawkers added to the chaos.

They pushed their goods amidst the crowd and littered the place. Additional sweepers have been appointed to clean the place.