Mace-size bottle-gourds in Keonjhar surprise experts!

Keonjhar, Jan 16: Mace-size bottle-gourds, yielded in Odisha’s Keonjhar district have surprised the agriculture experts, for their unusual shape size, and textures. Over 9-feet long bottle gourds, harvested at Ghanashyama Shaw’s kitchen garden in Keonjhar Municipality is now a matter of media glare. Sources said Ghanshyama Shaw, a native of Sailang village under the Keonjhar municipality is a traditional farmer. He used to plant different types of vegetable and herbal plants in his kitchen garden, as a leisurely pursuit. A few months ago, he had planted some seeds of bottle guard, which was collected from a seed vendor. Within a couple of weeks, the bottle-guard plants climbed onto the roof of his cowshed and started flowering. Later, it started fruiting surplus. Especially, the shape and size of the gourds were found different from the normal country gourds. To everyone’s surprise, within 10 to 12 days from the day of flowering, the gourds became over 9-feet long and weighed around 15-16 kilograms each. Following this, the locals thronged near Shaw’s kitchen garden to get technical details regarding the successful farming. However, Horticulturist Ankita Priyadarshini  Mishra said, the species of the bottle guard is a cultured seed. Its shape and size are for the genomic effect of the developed seed. Apart from it, she told that the plant has grown equitably, for the favourable soil and climatic condition at about 30-35 degree Celsius humidity, she added. On the other hand, according to some octogenarians of the localities, the species of bottle gourd is called Gada-lau, since it appears as the mace of mythological Bhima. On the contrary,  some tribal people said it as Sapua-lau, as its shape and size have a resemblance with a huge python or Boda snake.