JU’s Cactus Garden to have more plant species

Vikas Sharma

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Tribune News Service

Jammu, October 21

The Cactus Garden on the University of Jammu (JU) campus, which had recently been taken over by the Department of Botany from the Arboriculture Department for its overall management, will have more species of cactus very soon.

The Botany Department has started an enrichment drive to fix target of having at least 100 species of cactus in the garden, which is one of the leading gardens in North India.

“The garden, spread in 8.5 acres of the varsity land, was found in early ’80s with the efforts of PK Wattal and it was well supported by Dr Jagdish Singh Sarkaria, who donated many rare species of cactus to the garden,” said Dr Sikander Pal of the Department of Botany, JU.

“In fact, there is a need to create awareness among the students not only from the varsity, but also from schools and colleges about different species of cactus and for that efforts are on to give a new look to the garden.

Every plant has a plate fixed near it mentioning the name of the species,” Dr Yashpal Sharma, Head of the Department of Botany, said.

“At present there are around 50 species of plants in the garden, but we are hopeful that with the enrichment drive, at least 50 more species will be planted. The construction of a cactus propagation house is also in the pipeline keeping in mind the potential of the garden for research work,” said Dr Sikander Pal of the Botany Department.

“Both students and scholars of the department are visiting the garden on a routine basis to do more research on the species of cactus,” he added.

The students are excited about addition of new species of the cactus. “It is a good initiative to launch enrichment drive to add more species as it would definitely help in our research work on new plants,” said Vishal, a research scholar.