Botanical garden (Puducherry) gets a new lease of life

With a history spanning 189 years, the Botanical Garden is among the oldest on the Coromandel Coast. Photo: S. S. Kumar The Hindu.

The facility was thrown open after the first phase of a Rs. 8-crore renovation initiative

Being a locale featured in Ang Lee’s Life of Pi may have just been a fame multiplier for even otherwise, many aspects of the city’s landmark Botanical Garden are pretty awe-inspiring.

On Monday, the Botanical Garden was opened after the first phase of a Rs. 8-crore renovation and beautification initiative, .

Lieutenant Governor A. K. Singh launched the new-look garden in the presence of Chief Minister N. Rangasamy, and Tourism Minister P. Rajavelu.

Later, they did a quick tour of the facilities accompanied by V. Balan, MLA and an entourage of officials led by Chief Secretary Manoj Kumar Parida and Tourism Secretary Mihir Vardhan.

The add-ons, set up at an estimated cost of Rs. 4.81 crore, include a nature centre, lily pond with Ashlar bridge, jogging track, shrub bed, kid’s play area, a renovated joy train for children and signages.

The second phase involves landscaping, an outer jogging track, a glass house, maze garden, an aquarium with a pond and provisioning additional ticket counters and toilets and parking facilities.

A butterfly conservatory, laser fountain, taxonomical park and staging annual flower shows are also part of the expansion plans.

The Botanical Garden (Le Jardin Botanique) established in 1826 by French botanist G. S. Perrottet encompasses 11 hectares of natural bounty that features indigenous and exotic flora ranging across evergreen, semi-evergreen, deciduous and tropical dry evergreen species.

With a history spanning 189 years, the Botanical Garden is among the oldest on the Coromandel Coast, and perhaps the only one of its kind on the East Coast.

The collection includes over 2,400 trees, 213 genus types and 293 species. Shrubs, medicinal plants, palm collection, fossils, foliage, ornamental plants, cycads and fruit trees provide variety. The oldest trees of the Bombax and Khaya genus go back 175 years.

Over the years, the government had been seized of the need to develop the garden to serve the interest of urban eco tourism and provide a green recreational space for visitors. Following a report by a steering committee to formulate a master-plan in 2002, it was decided to redesign the garden based on the objective of turning it into a prime tourist destination, revamp the way the landscape presented itself to visitors and to make the engagement more exciting for visitors by ramping up recreational values in addition to the informative function of the ecosystem.

The renovation and beautification was launched under the Centrally sponsored scheme “Development of Puducherry as a Mega Tourism Circuit’ where the Centre and UT Government shared the costs.

The plans suffered a major setback after the havoc caused by Cyclone Thane in 2011 which left the garden extensively damaged and about 300 trees completely uprooted. The Agriculture Department, which is the custodian of the premises, had been engaged in the restoration of the flora.

In September 2014, the Lt. Governor, who undertook a visit to the garden, was unhappy with the progress of the renovation and restoration and issued instructions to adhere to timelines for each phase of the project.

If work progresses on schedule, the second phase of work to make the garden a “living classroom, a picnic spot for children and tourists and a tranquil spot for the meditative minds” should be ready in a year.