Horticulture Dept fences BMP plans for Lalbagh Gardens

Horticulture Dept fences BMP plans for Lalbagh Gardens

The department has cited security reasons for rejecting the plan to erect an ornamental fence around the famous Lalbagh Botanical Gardens.

Deccan Herald

The Horticulture Department has flatly turned down the proposal to erect an ornamental fence around the famous Lalbagh Botanical Gardens, even as the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) is making preparations to begin the project.

The department, in a recently-held meeting along with Horticulture Minister R Srinivas, decided against putting up the ornamental metal fence as proposed by the BMP citing security reasons.

The BMP had planned to pull down the existing concrete wall around the gardens and replace it with a metal fence on the lines of the one around the Vidhana Soudha. The idea was to enhance the beauty of the gardens and make it visible from outside. The BMP has already earmarked Rs 1 crore for this project in its 2004-05 budget.

In fact, the BMP has been making preparations to commence the project and had even got clearance from its Project Management Committee. But the BMP will now have to give up its plans and divert the funds set aside for this purpose to other projects, according to official sources. BMP Chief Engineer Rame Gowda said the project has been approved by the BMP Project Management Committee. As the funds are already allocated in the budget, it will be tendered shortly. “If the Horticulture Department has any objections to the BMP taking up the project, we will take up the issue at the appropriate forum,” he added.

Metal grills will be designed in such a way that trepassers will be prevented from entering the garden. The existing entrance gates will remain as they are now and only the concrete wall will be demolished. The Horticulture department on its part is bothered about the safety of the sprawling 240-acre Botanical gardens, which houses some rare and precious plants species. “Lalbagh is not just a park where people come for a stroll. It is the largest Botanical gardens in the country with over 1,800 species of plant varieties,” Horticulture department Director Dr G K Vasant Kumar said.

Several rare herbs, plants, and trees have been stolen and vandalised here in the past by miscreants despite concrete walls. If the wall is replaced with grills, it will be easy for anybody to sneak into the garden during the night. Besides, the fence will lose its strength after a few years.

In that case, there will be no security to the precious Bonsai park, the anthuriums, adenzonia digitata (trees whose branches resemble roots) and tabebuia argentia (a rare tree specie planted by former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru). So the department has decided not to allow the BMP to erect the grills, he added.