12ft-high Gandhi statue to grace Lalbagh flower show

BENGALURU: A 12-foot-tall statue of a meditating Mahatma Gandhi will be the main attraction at the 209th Lalbagh Republic Day flower show, which will kick off on Friday.

The six-foot-tall fibreglass statue, created by

Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath

principal Jithendra Bhavni, will be placed atop a six-foot-tall seat, which will be decorated with 250 bundles of flowers, including orchids, anthurium, carnations, chrysanthemums and dracaena leaves.

Marking the 150th birth anniversary of the Mahatma, the flower show will house a recreation of his cottage in Wardha Ashram decorated with chrysanthemums and orchids, models of the three monkeys communicating Gandhi’s message, a replica of Gandhi and his glasses made entirely of millets and a sculpture of the Dandi March.

Mahatma Gandhi’s residence in

Sabarmati Ashram

is also being recreated at the heart of the Glass House, with 20 labourers having built an ashram in 15 days. In addition, 45 people will be working for three days to decorate the ashram with 2.4 lakh red roses, 3.2 lakh white chrysanthemums and 80,000 orange roses.

For the first time, Bengalureans will be able to catch a glimpse of the Darjeeling Cymbidium flowers, an orchid grown at a height of 10,000 feet above sea level. During the festival, 250 species of these orchids, which will come in 76 colours, will be displayed at the Glass House in the shape of a pyramid. Near the tank inside Lalbagh, a mini-fall has been constructed and water will be released from this waterfall 10 times every day over the course of the show.