Bandipora celebrates Wular festival

Srinagar, Sep 9: A three-day Wular Festival was conducted by Indian Army at Laharwalpura Ghat from September 07 to 09.
The three-day extravaganza was aimed at creating environmental awareness and promoting water sports and tourism in the area.
According to a statement, the festival also focussed at empowering women as well as the local fishing communities by providing a suitable platform to showcase their talents.
The Civil Administration, JKP, CRPF and the local awam were taken on board for this initiative wherein sports, education and entertainment came together in perfect synergy to create a successful festival.
Major events conducted as part of the festival included Men’s and Women’s Marathon, Bicycle Rally, Painting Competition, Declamation Competition, Cleanliness Drive, Boat races across multiple categories for both men and women.
Apart from these competitions, a multitude of activities geared towards generating awareness in various fields including, folk songs & dances, environmental awareness, traditional fishing skills etc, were also conducted.
In a unique first, girls of Bandipora participated wholeheartedly in the events and were also given full opportunity to do so with unique events specifically targeted towards girls, including marathon and kishtie race in addition to other open events.
The festival has impacted people from all walks of life and age groups with the footfall over the course of the festival estimated to be in several hundreds. It has generated awareness about the immense tourism as well as sports potential of Wular Lake and provided opportunities to the local populace to harness it for the upliftment of the socio-economic fabric in the adjoining areas.