Meet India's 'Mango Man' — No, he is not Arvind Kejriwal

An Indian hawker arranges mangoes at a roadside shop in the southern Indian city of Chennai May 31, 2006. REUTERS/Babu - RTR1DYAQ

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has a new hybrid of mango named after him — the "Yogi mango". The mango variety has been developed by famous mango grower Padamshri Haji Kalimullah.

Kalimullaha, 74, who had earlier named a mango variety after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has developed the "Yogi mango" in his orchard in the Dussehri mango belt in Malihabad area. Lovingly called "Mango Man" or "Aam Aadmi" for his grafting skills, he has also named mangoes after Bollywood actor Aishwarya Rai and cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar.

The "Yogi mango", he says, is grown naturally, is slender and beautiful and is a hybrid of the famous Dussehri mango variety.

"However, as the mango is still not ripe, nothing can be said about its taste but I hope it will be good," Kalimullah said.

Kalimullah says he names new mango varieties after celebrities "to make the legends immortal".

Kalimullah, who has been growing mangoes since 1957, has a mango orchard spread over five acres area at Malihabad.

The orchard has about a century-old prized tree, on which he started working in 1987 to develop the craft of growing different varieties on it.

He has also named the mangoes grown on this tree after his family members, who were also mango growers.

It is Kalimullah's talent in grafting and cultivating varieties of mangoes that fetched him the Padma Shri title and also that of "Udyan Pandit" by the Uttar Pradesh government.

Kalimullah is famous for growing 300 different varieties of mangoes on a single tree.

Asl-ul Muqarrar, the bright red Husn-e Ara, Sharbati Bagrain, Pukhraj, Walajah Pasand, Khas-ul Khas, Makkhan, Shyam Sunder, Prince, and Himsagar varieties of mangoes are among hundreds of his creations.