As Durga Puja nears, a drop in the production of lotus — a flower integral to the worship of the goddess — and resultant steep prices have left Bengal’s florists and puja organisers worried.

The price of the flower will be more this year on two counts. One, supply has fallen. Two, the absence of trains has jacked up transport expenses, adding to the cost of the flower, which some farmers fear may be eight to 10 times higher this time.

“Last year, I supplied 90 lakh lotuses to Calcutta traders but this year I can send only 30 lakh. A lotus sold for Rs 5 last year will cost Rs 40-50 apiece this year,” said Dhruba Malakar, a farmer from Labhpur, Birbhum, who also sells his produce in Calcutta.

The fall in production this year has much to do with the lockdown imposed in the wake of Covid-19, which kept farmers from cultivating the lotus in Birbhum and East Burdwan, districts that supply around five crore lotuses every year to Calcutta and its suburbs during Durga Puja.

Lotus farming begins in early April when ponds are cleaned. Most lotus farmers in Birbhum and East Burdwan said they could not afford to clean ponds because of funds crunch amid the lockdown. Those with money did not get manpower in the wake of social distancing, said Pradip Sarkar, a lotus farmer from Birbhum’s Ahmedpur.

Farmers start plucking lotuses from early September and transport them to cold storages in Birbhum’s Ahmedpur and East Burdwan’s Guskara. But now, transporting flowers is more expensive by vans or cars as trains aren’t running. “Till last year we sent lotuses by train. This time I have to hire a car. The cost is five times more,” said Birbhum trader Babu Birbangshi.

Puja organisers said lotus was an integral part of Durga Puja rituals and at least 200 lotuses were needed over the four days of worship, 108 for Sandhi Puja alone.

Sources in the horticulture department admitted that the prolonged lockdown affected most lotus farmers. In Birbhum, lotus is cultivated on 960 hectares of ponds.

An official in Birbhum’s agriculture department said: “We are yet to get this year’s data for lotus production, but reports suggest that it has dropped significantly because of the lockdown.”