Lalbagh raising minature ‘Western Ghats’

The horticulture department is planting rare, threatened and endemic species on six acres of wasteland inside the botanical gardens

Bengaluru’s famous Lalbagh Botanical Garden will now have a mini version of the Western Ghats, thanks to a drive to diversify its collection of plants.

On August 1, 240 saplings of 132 species from the Western Ghats were planted at a six-acre wasteland located behind the monumental Lalbagh rock on the south gate side.

The aim is to raise a forest patch akin to the Western Ghats, a global biodiversity hotspot, also called the Sahyadri. Hence, more plants will be added in the coming months — spanning 350 to 400 species in total.

The ‘Western Ghats Block’ of Lalbagh will open to the public in three-four years, authorities estimate.

These plants have been sourced from seven districts in Karnataka that fall in the Western Ghats range and are a mix of endemic, rare, endangered and threatened species. “We want to conserve and propagate these species,” M Jagadeesh, joint director of horticulture (Lalbagh), told Metrolife.

Additionally, he would like the Block to become a site for plant research, school excursions, and a gateway for those who can’t travel to the Western Ghats.

Crowdsourced project

The drive is part of the ongoing efforts to introduce new species to the 240-acre botanical garden that is already home to 2,350 species, few trees being more than 200 years old.

To source these plants, the authorities contacted plant explorers, research centres, and private vendors in the state. In the two years between acclimatising these saplings in their conservatory and planting them finally, these had grown from 1.5 to 3.5 feet. Their initial stock had more than 132 species but some did not survive the new environment, Jagadeesh informs.

To simulate the climate of the Western Ghats, they have installed 60 rain guns. “We will operate them intermittently every day to simulate rain conditions and a humid environment (of the Western Ghats),” Jagadeesh adds. A borewell has also been dug up for irrigation.

They are planting three saplings per species because the plan is to diversify their collection, not to populate the garden, informs Kusuma G, deputy director of horticulture (Lalbagh).

SPECIES WATCH
Plant taxonomist K R Keshava Murthy is an advisor on the project. Of all the species they have brought to Lalbagh, 39 are rare, endangered and threatened (such
as Hanigere mara, Rama patre, Mullu sampige, and Murugana huli) and 22 are endemic (such as Holay gaeru, Uppaage mara, Saalu dhoopa, and Kiralbhogi).

‘PRECIOUS LAND’
The patch where the ‘mini Western Ghats’ is coming up is part of the 100-acre land that former Karnataka CM Kengal Hanumanthaiah and M H Marigowda, the father of horticulture in India, had acquired from the public and given to the Lalbagh Botanical Garden. That’s how the garden, which spread over 140 acres during the British regime, became a 240-acre space.

But over the last 70 years, the said patch had become a dumping yard for fallen trees and organic matter. In a bid to revive the “precious land”, the horticulture authorities approached environment experts like Yellappa Reddy three and a half years ago. “They suggested we convert it to a patch like the Sahyadri,” says Jagadeesh.