The Hindu Bureau THIRUVANANTHAPURAM
The Jawaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute (JNTBGRI ), Palode, has won the 2024 Global Genome Initiative for Gardens (GGI-Gardens) Award.
JNTBGRI is winning the prestigious award for the third time, institute director S. Pradeep Kumar said in a statement.
The award is instituted jointly by the Global Genome Initiative for Gardens (GGI-Gardens), Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI), BGCI-US, and the United States Botanic Garden (USBG) for the collection and conservation of plant diversity.
This year, JNTBGRI aims to establish a biorepository focused on the plant diversity of the Andaman islands. Project investigators, Anurag Dhyani and K K. Sabu said the primary goal of this programme is to collect, store, and preserve samples from significant plant families and genera for research and conservation.
JNTBGRI is one of five recipients among botanic gardens and arboreta this year. The other winners are Cartagena Botanical Garden, Colombia, Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, South Africa, Mandhari Plants and Designs / Gede Tropical Gardens and Nursery, Kenya, and the National Herbarium of Rwanda.
The awards and the work they are supporting are a testament to the central role botanic gardens play in conserving and understanding plant genomic diversity worldwide, Morgan Gostel, Director of GGI-Gardens, said in the statement.
