Ooty garden’s architect McIver remembered

Udhagamandalam: The architect of the Government Botanical Garden (GBG) in Ooty,

William G McIver

, was remembered on his 142nd death anniversary on Friday.

Nilgiris collector J Innocent Divya placed a wreath on his tomb, located in the St. Stephen’s Church, in the presence of horticulture department officials.

The marble tomb was erected by McIver’s wife Anne on his demise on June 8, 1876, at the age of 51.

Director of Nilgiri Documentation Centre Venugopal Dharmalingam had discovered McIver’s tomb in 2009. “Since then, the horticulture department has been paying homage to the great architect of the world famous Ooty garden,” joint director (in-charge) of horticulture department Shiva Subramaniam Samraj said.

Early in 1847, Marquis of Tweeddale, the governor of Madras, initiated a move to form a public garden and a horticultural society in Ooty. In 1848, McIver, trained in the Royal Botanical Garden at Kew, was brought to Ooty to transform the wilderness into a beautiful Garden. He adopted Lindley’s system in laying out the garden and completed it in 1867.


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