The Horticulture Department has proposed to set up a botanical garden in over 23 acres of land in the temple town of Nanjangud at a cost of Rs. 10 crore.
Construction of a glass house is among the many works included in the proposed plan. The glass house will be built on the lines of the one at Lalbagh in Bengaluru. It has been planned to grow a wide variety of plants for scientific, educational, and ornamental purposes besides setting up a herbarium.
Planting of trees, shrubs, creepers, exotic shrubs, ground cover plants, rose garden flower bed and construction of mounds and lawn and children entertainment park are the many works that have been planned.
Developing Topiary and Herbal garden and a nursery are also included in the plan. According to official sources in the department, the proposed botanical garden is to maintain extensive collection of plants labelled with common and scientific names and regions of its origin.
V. Srinivas Prasad, Minister for Revenue and district in-charge, who has reportedly taken keen interest in setting up the botanical garden, had two rounds of talks with Horticulture Minister Shamanuru Shivashankarappa and sought support from the department.
Mr. Prasad also held meetings with the Deputy Commissioner of Mysuru district and senior officers of the department. He also held talks with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who promised to grant Rs. 5 crore from the CM special grants.
Mr. Prasad is also seeking financial assistance to construct the garden under the Resource Description Framework Scheme.
Meanwhile, there is another proposal to set up a botanical garden at Kuppanna Park in Mysuru city. The park has a sprawling area of over 14 acres and MLAs from Mysuru have favoured this plan.