The M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) has re-branded its botanical garden at Puthoorvayal in Wayanad to a biodiversity heritage centre as part of expanding the scope of the facility.
The project, inaugurated by M.I. Shanavas, MP, at Puthoorvayal on Thursday, seeks to involve ‘custodian farmers’ across the Western Ghats in it. Custodian farmers are those who intentionally conserve wild crops along with the usual crops they cultivate. “More than 100 smallholder farm families in the district have shown interest in taking part in the venture,” N. Anilkumar, senior director, MSSRF, told The Hindu .
The botanical garden was established in 2009 with 80 rare, endemic, and threatened (RET) species of plants on 10 hectares of land on the occasion of the 80th birthday of eminent scientist M.S. Swaminathan.
“Now we conserve 2,033 plant species, of which nearly 200 are trees, 512 are endemic to the Western Ghats, and 579 fall under IUCN’s threatened plant species category,” Dr. Anilkumar said. It has a collection of more than 60 species of wild orchids.
Frogs, butterflies
Ten rare and threatened frog species, of which six are recently discovered species, are spotted in the garden, besides nearly 100 species of butterflies and 60 species of birds. “The operational area of the garden will be extended to all the heritage locations of the Western Ghats — the most populous among the 36 global biodiversity hotspots of the world.” The garden will have three zones such as community zone, agro-biodiversity zone, and conservation zone together with 40 components, V. Balakrishnan, head of the centre, said. “It would have many unique strengths like trans-disciplinary science team, methods for integrated conservation approach, sensory garden, children’s garden, butterfly garden, RET plants conservatory, garden for ‘wild relatives’ of crops and rare crops,” he said.
A committee chaired by K.K. Narayanan is leading the programme.
