The Karanji Lake Nature Park on Thursday added an orchidarium to its many attractions. The Nature Park, which has a Butterfly Park, Watch Tower, and Bird Aviary, now boasts of an orchidarium with 98 plants of five species of orchids and many hybrids.
It was inaugurated by Rehana Banu, chairman of Zoo Authority of Karnataka, in the presence of Mayor R. Lingappa, M.K. Somashekar. MLA, and B.P. Ravi, executive director of Sri Chamarajendra Zoological Gardens, Mysuru.
The orchidarium is an indoor enclosure where orchids are kept in natural conditions. Efforts will be made to procure more species and add them to the display, Mr. Ravi said.
It has been set up with technical support of K.S. Shashidhar, president of the Orchid Society of Karnataka and former Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Nagaland. In a note, Dr. Shashidhar said India has about 1,300 species of orchid out of the estimated 24,000 found in the world. The Karnataka part of the Western Ghats has more than 270 species.
Karanji Lake offers ideal conditions in terms of humidity, aeration, light, and temperature for orchids. “It is planned to collect and display some of the important species of Western Ghats and from other parts of the country as part of education and create awareness among the public about the conservation of orchids,” he said.
Describing orchids as “most attractive, bizarre, intriguing and very ornamental”, Dr. Shashidhar said the flowers mimic insects, monkey faces and duck faces to attract pollinators. Dr. Shashidhar said as many as 1.54 lakh orchid hybrids had been registered.
He said the orchidarium at Karanji Late Nature Park can be made into a gene pool reserve for orchids from Western Ghats and other places. “This will open up possibilities of developing hybrids.”
