Plans afoot to maintain a collection of trees native to Eastern Ghats

The recent spell of heavy rain that lashed several parts of the city and its suburbs since November 9 has uprooted nearly 49 species of trees native to the Coromandel Coast in the century old Government Botanical Garden here.
While two of the trees (Atti and Red Gulmohar) were about 80 to 100 years old, another tree Albizia saman commonly known as Rain Tree was about 50 years old while the rest were aged between 30 and 50 years of age.
Timber to be auctioned
The trees are being removed. The timber will be auctioned after getting the nod of the Department of Forests said an official on anonymity.
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.
189-year history
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 296 species.
Sources said that as many as 300 trees were uprooted during Cyclone Thane in 2011. The Department of Agriculture procured species including Footstool Palm and Lipstick and replanted them in the garden.
At present the collection includes 130 exotic species and 166 indigenous species besides shrubs, medicinal plants, palm collection, fossils, foliage, ornamental plants, cycads and fruit trees. The oldest trees of the Bombax and Khaya genus go back 175 years.
According to official sources in the department, the botanical garden has around 89 of the total 122 species found in the tropical dry evergreen forests of the Southern Coromandel Coast.
Extensive collection
The Department has now planned to maintain an extensive collection by procuring the remaining species native to the Eastern Ghats labelled with their common and scientific names.
The Department will be adding 35 new species such as Ficus Hispida, Salvadora Persica, Semecarpus Anacardium, Commiphora Caudata, Albizia Planificons and Ziziphus Oenopolia to the garden.
The saplings will be procured from plant nurseries and government research institutions so that native trees of the Coromandel Coast are replanted. The idea is to have the entire indigenous species native to the Coromandel Coast and gradually introduce non-native species to the garden.

Source : The Hindu