About Shirui Lily Festival
- The Shirui Lily Festival is a five-day cultural and ecological festival held in the Ukhrul district of Manipur, which is dominated by the Tangkhul Naga tribe.
- The festival celebrates the endemic Shirui Lily (Lilium mackliniae), a rare, bluish-pink bell-shaped flower found only in the Shirui Hills, about 18 km from Ukhrul town.
- The flower was discovered in 1946 by English botanist Frank Kingdon-Ward and won a merit prize at the 1948 Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) show in London.
- In 1989, the Manipur government declared Shirui Lily as the State Flower, but it is now endangered due to tourism pressures and the invasion of an exotic bamboo species.
- The festival aims to raise awareness about the ecological importance of the flower and promote conservation efforts.
