Ex-Collector’s green quest now a mini forest, beats official apathy

CHENNAI: Official apathy is sometimes the killer of good government projects. A good project envisioned by one bureaucrat dies down due to the neglect of his/her successor. But, every once in a while, a project overcomes the black hole pull of bureaucratic indifference and stands the test of time. All it needs is a little bit of support from nature.

One such project was the mini Kew Garden project, pioneered by former bureaucrat Ashok Vardhan Shetty. Inspired by his school curriculum about Kew Gardens of London, he set up a mini Kew Garden over a large extent of barren land in a village called Edaikkal near Ulundurpet during his stint as Villupuram Collector in 1994.

“At school, I had a lesson on the Kew Gardens of London, which left a deep impression on me. The Kew Gardens are supposed to have a sample of every type of tree, plant and shrub found anywhere in the world. I had the idea to set up a mini-Kew Gardens that would have a sample of every tree, plant and shrub that grows in Tamil Nadu. There was a large extent of barren government land (more than 500 acres) in a village called Edaikkal near Ulundurpet. I used the Social Forestry funds and entrusted the work to the Forest Department and personally supervised the project. To begin with, we decided to plant 250 different varieties of flora, one acre for each species of tree, plant and shrub. The plantations were done successfully. Herbariums and special agro-climatic conditions for rarer/exotic varieties were to be created in due course.”

The garden suffered neglect after his successor didn’t evince the same interest in the project following his transfer in late 1994 and after GoI stopped funding for Social Forestry in 1996. Miraculously, the Edaikkal village plantation transformed into a dense mini-forest, housing fauna like deer, mongoose and snakes. “I don’t know where they came from. I requested Supriya Sahu, Addl. Chief Secretary, Environment and Forests Department, GOTN, to check what happened to the Edaikkal project. She was kind enough to take photos and also images captured by a drone of the mini-forest and send them to me. I had mixed feelings of joy and sorrow when I saw the photos,” he said.