The Chennai Corporation will refurbish the Otteri urban forest and herbal park at a cost of Rs.1 crore, said Mayor M.Subramanian. Inspecting the herbal park on Sunday, Mr. Subramanian said that the renovated urban forest would be thrown open to public in November 2010 and be one of the spots for entertainment and walking in north Chennai.
The herbal park would have 5,500 sq metre pathway in an area of 10.39 acre. More than 4,000 trees and shrubs belonging to tropical dry evergreen forest are being grown by the Corporation.
The trees and shrubs grown in the park are indigenous species of the coromandel coast and have medicinal properties. The trees and shrubs have thick dark green foliage throughout the year. Around 300 indigenous species of the Coromandel Coast are used medicinally.
The Chennai Corporation is raising the trees on a land that was once a garbage dump in Otteri. Neem, peepal, lemon, jamun, Indian gooseberry and other tropical dry evergreen trees are grown here. Vilvam, magizham, arali, adathoda, nochi, vengai, thoothuvalai and nithyakalyani are the Tamil names of some of the species in the herbal park.
