The Success Story of Bengaluru’s Master Garden
The Lalbagh Botanical Garden in the city of Bengaluru was built in an area of 40 acres by Hyder Ali, the ruler of Mysuru, in 1760. It was later expanded upon by Tipu Sultan in 1782, and subsequently developed by the British and the Indian doyens of Horticulture. In 1856, it was given the status of ‘ Government Botanical Garden’. Presently, it is an extravagant green paradise with a garden area of 240 acres in the heart of the city. The garden has edible, medicinal, industrial, ornamental and other economic plants sourced from many parts of the world. It is known as the ‘ Red Garden’ or Lalbagh because of a profusion of roses and other red flowers here. At present, it is also a welldeveloped centre of horticultural activities with a tree nursery, fruit nursery, school garden, herbal garden, economic garden, and more.
Marshall Tito, former President of the erstwhile Yugoslavia, who visited India in 1955 commented that “India is a garden and Lalbagh is the heart of it.” French- Swiss architect Charles Edourd Jeanneret, popularly known as Le Corbusier, said “Towns are biological phenomena and park, playfields, gardens, greenbelts are the lungs of the towns.” In Bengaluru, the vast areas of vegetation in the form of parks, gardens etc. act as ‘ lung spaces’ and their spatial distribution in different parts of the urban area lends it the name of ‘ city of gardens’. Lalbagh, Cubbon Park, Lumbini Garden, Cariappa Memorial Park, etc. are some of the vital lung spaces in the city. Further, Lalbagh as a botanical garden is of utmost importance as it not only provides the ground for a myriad trees and useful plants, but also instills a deep love for nature and aesthetic sense among the city residents and visitors.
Journey from Heart to Lungs
The Master Plan of any town/ city promotes
planned development and regulates haphazard growth in urban areas. A city has two basic components: Built environment and open areas. Parks ( as heart) and gardens ( as lungs) meet the need for open spaces, provide clean and fresh air, and control micro- climate. These are the places for recreation and relaxation for the city residents. Therefore, gardens are considered as social, physical and cultural components in site design and cityscape. In other words, creating open spaces in the form of city parks and botanical gardens as part of urban green spaces needs both planning and design considerations, as their spatial concentration provides a character and image to the city.
Lalbagh as a botanical garden consists of a wide collection of plants of different varieties, and from different climates and countries, planted on a botanical basis wherein each is properly label led with relevant information such as name, nativity and the family to which it belongs. Presently, nearly 673 genera and 2,150 species of plants are found in Lalbagh. The vast collection has made it a veritable treasure house of plants. The three mango trees in the garden are said to have been in existence for the last 250 years, perhaps since the time of Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan! These trees have borne the whims and fancies of nature and still bear fruits.
Further, L al bag has a vital lung space of the city is also a place of natural beauty. It provides a healthy recreation place to the public and a venue to get closer to plants and nature. L al bag his one of the landmark soft he city as well as a sight- seeing destination for national and international tourists, particularly during the Independence Day Flower Show in the month of August and the Republic Day FlowerS how in January. The design and layout of the garden with both hard and soft landscape elements, such as roads, paths, shades, collection of varieties of plant species and artistic structures, attract visitors. Such a space has considerable effects on civil, cultural, social and physical aspects of cityl i fe. Presently, cultivation of plants and their conservation, maintenance, pruning, etc. keep the garden in perfect harmony with nature and climate. In fact, L al bag his a place of legends and beauty, rarity and wonder, practice of planting and botanical art works.
Treasure House of Plants
Towns and cities are decorated, ornamented and characterised with parks, gardens, recreational open spaces, tree- lined avenues along with street furniture. In modern times, the availability of adequate open spaces in a city defines the “standard of living”. Therefore, open spaces at neighborhood level as well as large- sized parks at city level are planned, creating an urban landscape for a pleasant, cheerful, spacious and attractive environment overall.
A city with a botanical garden defines urban green spaces differently. Botanical gardens are mainly meant for the study of specimens of plant life and hence have high educational value. Such green spaces are more attractive, pleasant and appealing for both researchers and visitors alike. In this context, Lalbagh Botanical Garden is a treasure trove of plants with 2,150 species belonging to 673 genera and 1,409 families. In fact, it has been enriched with numerous native and exotic floras through introduction, adaptation and proliferation from various parts of the world, since its inception in 1760. Some of the plant species may be classified as shown in Table 1.
The art of gardening and the application of various disciplines of science such as agriculture, horticulture, botany, arboriculture, floriculture and others have lent Lalbagh Garden a character that is one of its kind. Further, various garden features such as green lawns, shrubberies, hedges, flower beds, plant houses, lattice, fountains and beautiful pergolas, add unique features and make this garden a paradise of beauty.
Artistic and Historical Structures
A layout plan of any garden has both soft elements and hard elements of landscape. In Lalbagh, mini and minor structures along with street furniture not only serve as the hard elements, but they are also artistic in nature that are remnants of historical importance. A selection of them are described in Table 2.
Gardens Inside a Garden
According to standard definition, a contemporary botanical garden is one that is “a strictly protected natural urban green area, where a managing organisation creates landscaped gardens and holds documented collections of living plants and/ or preserved plant accessions containing functional units of heredity of actual or potential value for purposes such as scientific research, education, public display, conservation, sustainable use, tourism and recreational activities, production of marketable plant- based products and services for improvement of human
well- being”. In this context, a botanical garden has many created landscaped gardens inside a single garden. This is true of Lalbagh as well, where gardens inside a garden and overall conformations of the same define the unique character of the whole area. Table 3 describes various gardens inside the Lalbagh Garden.
Concluding Remarks
• The planning and designing of open spaces ( i. e. parks, gardens, etc.) require harmonisation of built environment with thoughtful ideas, imagination and understanding of nature, so as to explore the potentialities of the local site for growth of plant species, their arrangement