New Year gift: Ooty has a Karnataka garden

Karnataka Siri Horticulture Garden

, which was inaugurated on Monday in Ooty, is the newest reason to visit the famed hill station again. Extending to an area of about 38 acres of beautiful terrain, the garden houses an Italian garden, a Maze garden, a

Tea Garden

and small water bodies besides topiaries and a pallet. The garden was inaugurated by S.S. Mallikarjun, minister for horticulture and agricultural marketing, Karnataka.

Speaking on the occasion, Mallikarjun said, "The garden has been developed at a cost of Rs12 crore. An additional fund of Rs5 crore will be sanctioned to complete the unfinished works". The minister also laid foundation stone for the information centre and a view point.

M. Maheswara Rao, secretary to the government of Karnataka, department of horticulture and sericulture said, "This garden will add huge value to the tourist potential of Ooty". Further, he requested the district administration to add the garden’s name in the list of tourist spots so as to increase its popularity in due course of time.

Stating that the new garden adds another feather in the cap of the Nilgiris, J. Innocent Divya, Nilgiris Collector said, "The new garden will add more footfalls of tourists to the Nilgiris".

To mark the occasion, K.R.Arjunan, MP (

Rajya Sabha

), Nilgiris, released an introductory book on hill stations.

The garden, located at Fern Hill at the west end of Ooty and close to the Ooty Lake, was once owned by Maharaja of Mysore.

The works on the garden started five years ago. With six mini dams, the floral garden has an Italian garden, maze concept garden, and floral beds on lawns, extending to six acres, besides an amphitheatre. Apart from that the garden has 2 acres of grazing land for sheep. According to the officials, the garden houses around 20 sheep, which are an added attraction and an eco-concept. Except for the dams, there is no concrete structure in the garden. Even the small elements of the garden are designed as nature friendly. The mini dams store water from rain harvesting and natural streams. The water is used for irrigating the garden during summer.

The specialty of the garden is its exclusive orchid house besides a bunch of indigenous trees, a main attraction of birds. Seventy-five different kinds of flowers have been planted in the new garden. This part of the Fern Hill was used for horticultural research before the Independence when the area was under the Mysore royal family. After Independence, it was handed over to the Karnataka government.

With parking facility, the garden is located very close to Ooty Lake as well as the entry point to the Mysore Road. The floral garden is open to public free of cost at least for a month.