Visakhapatnam :

Taking a leaf out of the National Bonsai Park in New Delhi, the Visakhapatnam Urban Development Authority (Vuda) has mooted a Bonsai Garden at Kailasagiri, one of the busiest tourist spots in the Port City, as part of its efforts to boost tourism. Vuda is presently busy preparing an action plan for the project and is likely to start on the garden by the beginning of this summer.

Confirming the proposal, Vuda vice-chairman, N Yuvaraj, said that they will be conducting a meeting with the officials concerned and Bonsai lovers, including the city-based Visakha Bonsai Society, at the Vuda office in the first week of February this year, to take a final decision on the Bonsai garden project.

Before that, the officials concerned, including Vuda’s divisional forest officer (DFO), will be given special training on Bonsai plantation and gardening in the last week of January. The garden will be the first of its kind public garden in the city, he added. People are presently seeing Bonsai plants at exhibitions only and there is no dedicated garden for these plants in the city.

“The Bonsai Garden was proposed in the Vuda board meeting. As so much of space at Kailasagiri is presently lying unused, we felt that the Bonsai garden will give a new look to the hotspot and may also serve as an attraction to lure more visitors to the spot,” Yuvaraj said.

To begin with, Vuda will invite all Bonsai lovers to extend their support to the development of the park. “Vuda will not be procuring Bonsai plants from across the globe but will depend on Bonsai lovers to come forward and voluntarily donate Bonsai plants to the garden. Vuda will spend around Rs 10 lakh in creating the initial infrastructure in the garden,” Yuvaraj added.

While P Lalitha, vice president, Visakha Bonsai Society, welcomed the Vuda’s decision to set up an exclusive Bonsai Park, she was not too happy about the location mooted by Vuda. “Kailasagiri is not a suitable place to display Bonsai plants as they cannot survive for long in sea breeze. Our society is very keen on YSR Park at Dwarakanagar for the garden and have already suggested that Vuda allocate us some space there for the Bonsai garden,” Lalitha told TOI.

According to Lalitha, Bonsai plants are mostly brought in from Kerala, Coimbatore and Kolkata in India apart from China, Japan and Singapore and their prices range from Rs 1,000 to Rs 1 lakh, depending on the size of the plant and species. “The maximum lifespan of a Bonsai plant is around 20 years. The Visakha Bonsai Society will be able to provide nearly 50 to 100 Bonsai plants to the garden and is ready to provide more if there is no space problem,” she said.

While admitting that the Visakha Bonsai Society had indeed earlier asked Vuda to allot space at the YSR Park for the Bonsai garden, Yuvaraj said, “Though the Visakha Bonsai Society had sought space at YSR Park for the Bonsai Garden, Kailasagiri was finalized as we wanted to set up the garden at the earliest. At present, Kailasagiri has adequate space for the project while YSR Park has not yet been readied and will take nearly nine months to complete. We will think about a Bonsai garden at YSR Park once it is ready.”

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Visakhapatnam> Vudu / by V. Kamalakara Rao, TNN / January 18th, 2014