The 237-year-old Indian Botanical Garden in Howrah’s Shibpur is seeking funds from the corporate sector for infrastructure development, renovation and digitisation programmes.
The centrally-funded garden gets a meagre Rs 20 crore every year from the Union ministry of environment, forests and climate change. That money is spent on paying salaries alone, said the Botanical Survey of India (BSI) director A.A. Mao.
The garden receives 4 lakh ticketed visitors annually and earns Rs 2 crore. That money goes into the consolidated fund of the central government.
The authorities of the Shibpur garden appealed for corporate funds at a recent tea party organised by the BSI at the garden.
At the tea party, attended by representatives of corporate bodies, among others, joint secretary in the ministry of environment, forest and climate change, Nameeta Prasad, said: “The resources generated by the garden cannot be ploughed back into the garden because it goes into a consolidated fund of the central government.... Hence, there is a need to seek private corporate funding to speed up the garden’s development programmes.”
The ministry has sanctioned Rs 59 crore for building a new headquarters for the Botanical Survey of India on Andul Road in Howrah. Work on the 1.8-acre plot will start in April, the BSI director said.
“The piece of land has been with us since 1968. We fought cases against the encroachers and cleared the land. We had applied for funds for our headquarters there and the government has sanctioned it. The funds will be released in phases as construction begins,” said Mao.
The BSI headquarters is now located in Salt Lake’s DF Block.
“We do not have adequate infrastructure to host conventions and seminars. We had to spend money to hire places like five-star hotels to hold our International Rose Convention where we had participants from all around the globe. That is money going down the drain,” said Mao.
The BSI receives an annual allocation of Rs 88 crore for salaries and overheads. “This is the total budget for the BSI that takes care of all the regional botanic gardens and centres all over the country. Eighty per cent goes into paying the salary of the staff. Only 20 per cent can be utilised for development purposes. And this garden, which is a national heritage garden, gets Rs 20 crore annually,” said the BSI director.
The BSI receives separate funds for capital works.
Any proposal to raise entry ticket prices invariably meets with protests, especially from local people, said Mao.
In August 2023, the entry ticket price was raised from Rs 10 to Rs 30. Morning walkers, mostly residents of the area, pay a sum of Rs 100 annually for access to the garden.
Another source of revenue for the garden is auctioning timber logs of dead trees. The state forest department undertakes the auctioning of the logs for the botanic garden, said Shibpur garden director, Devendra Singh.
“About Rs 56 lakh in revenue was generated from the first phase of timber log auction after Cyclone Amphan felled multiple trees in 2020. We are yet to auction the rest of the logs,” he said.
The garden, which has over 3,000 species, including endemic, threatened, medicinal and ornamental plants, serves as an ex-situ conservation site, preserving botanical heritage.
It needs around Rs 200 crore to implement transformation proposals, including restoration of heritage structures such as the assistant curator’s house, dispensary building and the palm house.
Landscaping needs to be done in the area surrounding the 274-year-old Great Banyan Tree. Interpretation centres need to be created to provide educational resources and interactive exhibits on botanical science and conservation.
“A new cactus house and orchidarium, a fern house and an insectivorous plant house are also needed to showcase diverse plant species,” said Mao.
The garden has a collection of 20 million herbarium specimens, which need to be digitised to create an online database accessible to researchers, educators and the public. Over 0.1 million specimens have been digitised and uploaded to the Indian Virtual Herbarium portal. “We need funds to digitise the rest,” said Mao.
The digital herbarium launched in 2022 already gets 4 lakh visitors a month.
Joint secretary Prasad outlined some of the details for the corporate funding proposal.
“The BSI will not receive any funds, all the funds will be channelled to the implementing agency. Funding organisations are free to choose any implementing agency they prefer.... There will be proper acknowledgement. Donors can choose to name a plant variety after a family member,” she said.