Safe haven to hundreds of rare, endangered and threatened trees

Updated on: Friday, September 28, 2012

In a unique conservation initiative, the Calicut University Botanical Garden (CUBG) will provide a safe haven to hundreds of rare, endangered and threatened (RET) trees from the ecologically fragile Western Ghats, which has recently made it to the coveted UNESCO World Heritage list.

The CUBG, the largest and most diverse botanical gardens in varsities across the country, will soon have an arboretum (tree garden) in 20 acres allotted by the varsity for the ex-situ conservation project. It will conserve around 200 most threatened tree species from the Western Ghats in the first phase.

The World Heritage Committee, which included the Western Ghats on the world heritage list in July, had noted that the mountain stretch is home to at least 325 globally threatened species and is one of the world's eight "hottest hotspots" of biological diversity. "We are planning to include the most endangered tree species in the arboretum. There is a large number of tree species in the biological hotspot in urgent need of conservation," said Dr M Sabu, officer in charge of the CUBG and head of the botany department. He said the varsity had submitted a Rs 1 crore project to the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF).

Scientists from the Botany department will undertake a field survey in the Western Ghats to collect the species. "The plant material will be collected from the Western Ghats sites. We can rear the species here and can think of reintroducing them to their original habitat at a later stage," he said.

Additionally, a tree-top walk facility will be introduced in the CUBG connecting it to the proposed arboretum to help people understand trees from close quarters. Except for those endemic to high altitude areas, all other endangered trees will be able to thrive in the climatic conditions at CUBG.

Sabu said the CUBG, spread across 19.5 hectares now, houses a collection of 2,500 plant species. The garden, inaugurated in 1972 by Singapore Botanical Garden former director Prof R E Holttum, also houses the largest collection of ginger species in the country.

Safe haven to hundreds of rare, endangered and threatened trees

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