jaipur a pall of gloom has descended on travel and tourism stakeholders in rajasthan with the state tourism department indicating the worldfamous pushkar fair is headed for cancellation this year in wake of the covid19 pandemicpushkar fair is one of the worlds largest cattle fairs the nineday event which witnesses trading of thousands of camels and horses was scheduled to start from november 22 but there is no official word yet whether it will be held or nota senior tourism department official speaking on the condition of anonymity told ians that although there is no confirmation yet about the events fate it seems certain that it wont take place as per the advisory issued by the home departmentthe advisory limits the gathering of people to 100 in any event being organised in the state said the official adding there will be a challenge to limit the number of people coming in from different villages if the fair is organised and hence it is difficult to give the go ahead to the eventwe have asked the animal husbandry department to call a meeting so that official information on the fair can be disseminated he saidmeanwhile stakeholders in view of the silence of tourism officials on pushkar fair have started discussing its impact on tourism as well as on the rural economy as the event was a big source of business for locals as well as the tourism industrysanjay kaushik a tour operator said pushkar fair is one of the largest cattle fairs in the world apart from the buying and selling of livestock it has emerged as an important tourist attraction where villagers from across the state come to set their stalls sell and buy cattle and make money competitions such as the matka phod longest moustache and bridal competition are the main draws for this fair which have been attracting thousands of touristssadly this year shall not be the same for them even the tourism shall suffer for this event earned annual livelihood for many stakeholders he added