Surat: Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani announced the state government’s move to rename dragon fruit as ‘Kamalam’ on Tuesday, citing that farmers believed it looked like a lotus.
Claiming that the name dragon fruit did not sound appropriate, CM Vijay Rupani said that people often mistook the fruit to originate from China owing to its name.
Dragon fruit is grown widely in the areas of Kutch, Navsari, and parts of Saurashtra in Gujarat. However, CM Vijay Rupani ruled out any political reasoning behind renaming the fruit as Kamalam – which is also the name of the BJP’s state headquarters in Gujarat – while the Lotus is the symbol of the BJP.
Rupani further informed that the state government had applied for a patent to change the nomenclature of dragon fruit. He also noted that Kamalam was the most expensive fruit in the market at present.
Dragon fruit is also known as pitahaya, which is said to be a word of Mexican origin. It is widely cultivated in Southeast Asia, but is also said to be endemic to Central America. It is listed as also being referred to as ‘Strawberry pear’, and its name dragon fruit is a reference to how the eggs of a dragon could look – i.e. scaly.
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