BENGALURU: The horticulture department’s plan to create five botanical gardens akin to Lalbagh, in other districts of the state, has come to a standstill due to a fund crunch. In April 2018, the department had announced the setting up of five botanical gardens — Doddasagara in Tumakuru, Sir M Visvesvaraya in Chikkaballapura, Limbabudi in Mysuru, Sirsi and Tarankanahalli in Uttara Kannada and Kannamangala in East Bengaluru. Former IFS officer Dr A N Yellappa Reddy, part of the department’s advisory committee, had recommended it and a master plan was prepared.
“Work is moving at snail’s pace because of a fund crunch. While 90% of the work is complete in Chikkaballapura, it has come to a halt because of the buffer zone regulation. It takes many years to create a botanical park, especially like Lalbagh. In most places, planned plantation work is not being done,” said an official.
Annually, around `22-`25 crore is given to the department, of which 70-80 per cent goes towards maintenance and salaries, and the remaining 20 per cent is used for plantation work. The official added that in Doddasagara, less than 40 per cent of plantation work has been done on 223 acres. In Kannamangala, the plan was to plant pepper creepers along with the existing coconut groves, but very little progress has been made. Plantation work started in Sirsi but is very slow.