Botanical Gardens in India

Why in news?

The Tamil Nadu government decided to establish a large botanical garden in the State, in order to protect and conserve the plant community.

What is botanical garden?

• Botanical garden is an educational institution for scientific workers and general public to awake and enlightened interest in plant life.
• The botanical gardens are the natural source of science and culture.
• Botanical gardens are major centers of research and education on plants as well as famous tourist destinations.

Chengalpattu Botanical Garden (CBG), at Kadambur village in Chengalpattu district of Tamil Nadu will be India’s largest botanical garden.

What are the importance of botanical gardens in India?

• Biodiversity outreach - Botanical gardens are important centers for plant exploration, discovery and research, as well as biodiversity outreach.
• Structural foundations - Since plants are the structural foundations of our diverse ecological community’s botanical gardens can preserve them.
• Plant research - Modern academic gardens often have hundreds and thousands of dried plant specimens for research.
• Richness of life on earth - Botanical gardens represent the richness of life on earth and a metric of national success in science and outreach
• Botanical gardens in India - The botanical gardens in India ranges of 10-35.
• Some of the botanical gardens in India are:
  • Botanic Garden of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR),
  • National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh),
  • Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment (KSCSTE)-Jawaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute in Palode (Kerala),
  • KSCSTE-Malabar Botanical Garden and Institute for Plant Sciences, Kozhikode (Kerala).

Acharya Jagadish Chandra (AJC) Bose Indian Botanic Garden - Oldest of the Indian academic gardens located at Howrah, Kolkata and established in the year 1787.

What are the challenges to botanical gardens in India?

• Negligence - Indian scientific and educational institutions have neglected many aspects of plant biology, few being exceptions to it.
• Lack of standards - There is lack of standards to the Indian botanical gardens.
• Lack of global partner - Only few botanical gardens have key partners with the foreign botanical gardens.
• Complex engineering process - To set up and maintain a botanical garden.

Quick facts

References

1. The Hindu│ Botanical Gardens In India
2. CSIR│ About CSIR