Rajasthan: Largest inland salt lake Sambhar to host 3-day festival from tomorrow; check details

Jaipur: The Country’s largest inland salt lake Sambhar is going to host a 3-day Sambhar Festival from Friday with events like bird watching to stargazing and folk dances to Deepotsav.

The festival is being organized for the first time by the Tourism Department of the state government adding one more to its list of fairs and festivals such as Pushkar and Maru Mahotsava.

Sambhar festival

‘Like other fairs and festivals, the Sambhar festival will also become a centre of attraction for domestic and foreign tourists as we have planned interesting events,’ claims deputy director of the Tourism Department Upendra Singh Shekhawat.

The festival will start with an adventure bike ride from Jaipur to Sambhar and later on, the events like art and craft exhibitions, photography exhibitions, camel and camel cart rides, fancy kite flying, adventure activities parasailing, ATV ride, cycling, performances by folk artists will be held.

The tourists will also enjoy the sightseeing tour of the salt lake by salt train, salt processing, heritage walk of the Sambhar town and tracking of the famous Shakambhari Mata Temple.

A talk show will also be organized during the festival to make tourists aware of the historical importance of Sambhar and interesting information about birds.

Religious and cultural events will also take place during the festival with Deepotsave with 21,000 lamps at Devyani Kund, Maha Aarti and grand fireworks. With this folk artists like Jassu Khan and Seema Mishra will also perform in the festival.

Major attractions of festival

Shekhavat said that the major attraction of the festival will be bird watching in the lake and star gazing where tourists will get a chance to watch migratory birds from northern Asia and Siberia and gaze at the stars in the open sky of Sambhar at night.

Notably, Sambhar has been designated as a Ramsar site (recognized wetland of international importance) because the wetland is a key wintering area for tens of thousands of pink flamingos and other birds that migrate from northern Asia and Siberia. The town is around 80 km from Jaipur and is a major tourist attraction.