THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The lush garden in the premises of the Kerala assembly has now turned digital. The garden flora that consists of various trees, plants and creepers have been documented and each has been assigned a QR code. Visitors can scan these and easily access information about each species. With the move, Kerala Assembly has become the country’s first legislative headqaurters of a state in the country to have a digital garden.
The digital garden was inaugurated by Speaker M B Rajesh in a function held recently at the assembly lounge. The concept and creation of the garden were by Akhilesh S V Nair, a research scholar from the Department of Botany, and Dr A Gangaprasad, professor and director of Centre for Biodiversity Conservation, both at the University of Kerala.
“The assembly campus has more than 300 species of trees and plants. Specific URLs were used to create QR codes for different species. To create a digital garden, the QR code is placed along with the plant label. The person can access the complete data of each plant species on the website,” said Akhilesh. Some of the trees and plants on the campus include Adenanthera pavonina L (Manchadi), Alpinia calcarata Rosc (snap ginger), Aquilaria malaccensis Lam (agarwood tree), Bombax ceiba L (Malabar silk cotoon tree) and Ensete superbum (Roxb) Cheesman (a wild plantain).
Any person interested in plants can assess the website freely by logging onto - digitalgarden.niyamasabha.org. A digital garden has also been set up at Kanakakkunnu. The authors also established a digital garden at Kerala Raj Bhavan, University of Kerala, Kerala Public Service Commission and at Maharaja’s College, Ernakulam.
Inspired by the work, institutes like University College in Thiruvananthapuram, Jawaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanical Garden and Research Institute, Malabar Botanical Garden and Institute for Plant Sciences also established digital gardens on their campuses.