At present the production of orchids is at a nursery in another location. In the future it is envisioned that the gardens will support large-scale production of orchids, for display in the gardens, for sale to the public and also for conservation purposes. The local forest has five species of orchid that have been close to being eradicated due to looping of branches and over grazing affecting the habitat. It is a definite aim to reintroduce the orchids into the forest when the necessary social fences have been established. In order to achieve this it is essential that we build up a stock of the species from the few individual specimens that are currently in Auroville.

  
  For more details of the IIN-India National Conservation Programme, please contact :  
  Dr. K.N.Nair, Conservation Programme Coordinator IIN-India, National Botanical Research Institute, Rana Pratap Marg, Lucknow 226001(U.P), Phone: 0522-2205831-35, Extn. 236, Fax: 0522-2205839,
Email-nairnbri@yahoo.co.in, drknnair@satyam.net.in		  
 

Profiles of Gardens
of Small Grant Scheme

  
 
Brief profile of five of the eleven gardens / arboreta selected for award of small grant project is given below. The account on rest of six small grant awardees will appear in the next issue of the Newsletter.
 
  Botanical Survey of India, Western Circle (BSI-WC), Pune  
 

BSI – WC was established in 1955 after the reorganization of BSI. Besides the campus garden at 7, Koregaon Road, there is an Arboretum and experimental garden with an area of ca 44 acres at Mundhwa, 5 km away from the main campus.

Mundhwa Garden is the site for implementing the conservation programme on legume germplasm under the IIN – India Small Grant project. Some of the important endemic, rare and threatened plants growing in this garden are Frerea indica, Rauvolfia serpentina, Psilotum nudum, Mulluva spictata, Abutilon ranadei, Sheshagiria sahyadrica, Gloriosa superba, Gymnema sylvestre, Hemidesmus indicus, J. gossypifolia. Justicia adhatoda, Rauvolfia serpentina, Terminalia bellirica, T. chebula, Tinospora cordifolia etc. A good population of Tylophora indica is being maintained to meet the great demand from the public for the treatment of bronchial asthma.

BSI – WC maintains the herbarium of Western Circle with ca 1,70,000 specimens including 564 type collections, collections of Theodore Cooke, Talbot and other earlier collectors.
Fig.2. Tabebuia argentea, in the full bloom at
Mundhawa Garden, BSI-WC
  
 
     
 
1 || 2 || 3 || 4 || 5 || 6 || 7 || 8 || 9 || 10 || 11 || 12 || 13 || 14 || 15 || 16 || 17 || 18 || 19 || 20