Vaishno Devi board’s hitech nursery a hit among forest training institutions
JAMMU: A brainchild of the Jammu and Kashmir governor NN Vohra, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board’s high-tech nursery at Panthal near Katra in Reasi district has been hogging the attention of the forest training institutions of various states including that of the Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy, Dehradun. Vohra is also the chairman of the shrine board.
The nursery has also given tremendous impetus to the efforts of the board to increase the green cover of Trikuta Hills that houses the cave shrine and conserving the environment of the entire Shrine area.
Besides continuously improving the facilities for the visiting pilgrims, the Board has been according high attention towards the implementation of various initiatives for promoting the welfare of the people.
Due to the special interest taken by Vohra, the Board has taken up large-scale plantation of various indigenous species of plants, creepers, soil binders and flowering trees and bushes at the nursery to generate high-quality planting materials for plantation in the shrine area. The nursery is rearing indigenous species of plants which are compatible with the local climatic conditions.
The nursery is progressively increasing its capacity for producing quality planting materials, is being visited by groups of students and trainee officers from the forest training institutions of various states including the Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy, Dehradun.
Phase two in the docks Consequent to a recent review with shrine board chief executive officer (CEO) JK Singh, and additional CEO Dr MK Kumar, the governor prompted them to prepare a detailed project report for phase two of the nursery as the process of land levelling has already started.
Besides, on the directions of the governor, timebound work is being done to plant seasonal flowers and ornamental plants for beautifying the upcoming Tarakote Marg and other areas visited by the pilgrims.
Special Features of Nursery The nursery has an automatic hi-tech mist chamber where temperature and aeration are controlled to provide suitable conditions for round the year cultivation and growth of plants.
It also has two poly-greenhouses and one naturally ventilated poly-green house to provide a protected environment for the cultivation of quality planting material. For ensuring the reusability of components, light weight and re-usable root trainer based ports of 150 cc and 300 cc along with weightless growing media are being used.
An advanced fogging system has also been adopted for watering the nursery plants.
The nursery has a nature interpretation centre for the facilitation of visitors. An added advantage is that the nursery has a perennial source of water in the form of a spring which has been further complemented by creating 3 underground water storage tanks having a capacity of 1.40 lakh litres. Besides, the high value medicinal plants like virginia ciliata, quercus species, rhododendron and rose merry have been displayed for visitors at the hi- tech chamber of the Nursery.
This state-of-the-art mist chamber is producing 25,000-30,000 plants per season while the extensive naturally ventilated poly- greenhouses produce about 1.4 lakh plants and seedlings every season.