Mamata govt bans Santiniketan's Sonajhuri Holi celebrations, BJP says govt indulging in 'appeasement'

This is the first time when the forest department has banned the Holi celebrations at Sonajhuri Haat

The West Bengal government has banned Holi celebrations at the popular Sonajhuri Haat in Birbhum district's Santiniketan this year, citing possible damage to the greeneries in the forest belt, an official said on Wednesday.

The Sonajhuri Haat is located near Visva Bharati's Santiniketan campus, a UNESCO heritage site.

Bolpur Divisional Forest Officer Rahul Kumar said several banners have been put up in the area, requesting people - a large number of whom could be foreigners and domestic tourists - neither to park vehicles nor celebrate the festival of colours there.

Visitors were also requested not to videograph Holi festivities, he said.

"The department will seek support of police and administration to enforce the ban but will also leave it to people for the better sense to prevail," Kumar told PTI.

A spokesperson of Visva Bharati, a central university, said the varsity authorities cannot open the campus area for lakhs of people on Holi, keeping in mind the UNESCO heritage status.

About the ban on celebrating the Holi festival in the forested Sonajhuri area, the DFO said, "We are not issuing any diktat and people in large groups will be prevented from walking to the Sonajhuri Khowai belt on March 14 - the day of Dol Yatra. The sprinkling of coloured water may cause irreparable damage to trees. Let us take the pledge to save Sonajhuri from any ecological damage on March 14," the DFO said.

This is the first time when the forest department has banned the Holi celebrations at Sonajhuri Haat, which had turned into a destination for lakhs of people during the spring festival after Visva Bharati had stopped public participation in 'Basanto Utsav' (spring festival) after 2019.

"We are not opening the varsity campus (to all) for the 'Basanto Utsav' because of the UNESCO World Heritage status," the Visva Bharati spokesperson said.

"Opening it up for all would mean accommodating more than 5,00,000 people within the ashrama, which Visva-Bharati cannot manage in terms of infrastructure and logistics," he told PTI.

What does BJP say?

West Bengal LoP Suvendu Adhikari said this has not happened in just one area. "Police conduct coordination programmes at the time of programs of other communities. We saw this happening during CPI(M) and TMC regimes. But in 2025, for the first time, meetings were held at every police station for Holi. What was the issue in the meeting, this is a special month for the other community and this time Holi is falling on a Friday. So, it was openly said that colours should not be used and Holi should be celebrated. There will be arrests if someone does something. Birbhum Additional SP said that by 10 am, the Holi celebrations in Santiniketan should be wrapped up because it is Friday...This is happening in Bengal for the first time...Mamata Banerjee's Police administration is doing politics of divides, it is doing politics of appeasement..." he told ANI.