The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Herbal park trees offer healing touch

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Oct 28, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Herbal park trees offer healing touch

Staff Reporter

Civic body raising trees with medicinal properties

— Photo: Chennai Corporation

GREEN SPACE: Mayor M. Subramanian (centre), checks the growth of saplings in Otteri urban forest in Chennai on Saturday.

CHENNAI: The air in the Otteri urban forest and herbal park seems to have acquired a therapeutic value.

The Chennai Corporation is raising trees having medicinal properties on a land that was once a garbage dump in Otteri. Neem, peepal, coral, lemon, jamun, Indian gooseberry and other tropical dry evergreen trees are grown here. Vilvam, arali, adathoda, magizham, nochi, vengai, nithyakalyani, thoothuvalai and neermaruthu are the Tamil names of a few more species in the herbal park.

Mayor M. Subramanian and Corporation Commissioner Rajesh Lakhoni inspected the urban forestry project on Saturday.

He said 5,000 saplings had been planted on the 10.5-acre plot.

A park with landscaping marks the entry to the urban forest.

Saplings from the Corporation’s nurseries in My Ladye’s Park and in Pattinampakkam (Foreshore Estate) would be raised at Otteri.

The nurseries also provide plants free of cost to the public.

New parks

The Mayor said that the Corporation and the Forest Department would together take up a greening programme in the city, where 45,000 saplings would be planted.

The Corporation would also develop new parks and upgrade the existing ones at a cost of Rs. 4.45 crore.

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