In the heart of city, near the Anna flyover, where once the famous Woodlands Drive-in restaurant was a get-together point for the city’s nature lovers who preferred to sip their cup of coffee or a grab a bite of hot masala dosa sitting in their cars and two-wheelers, is a beautiful botanical garden now. Christened as “Semmozhi Poonga” (literally translated "Classical Language Park"), the garden was inaugurated by the Chief Minister Dr. M Karunanidhi on November 24.
The botanical garden is meant to be in commemoration of the first classical Tamil conference organised by the government earlier this year, although there is another garden by this name in Coimbatore to mark the World Tamil Conference held there last year.
The park, at the Cathedral Road and Anna Salai junction and opposite the American Consulate, used to be a lung space in the heart of the city, was leased to the restaurant owners by the horticultural society several years ago and after years of litigations and counter-litigations, it was duly returned to the state government.
Developed by the government over the span of a year at a cost of `8 crore, according to state government officials, the Semmozhi Poonga now proudly boasts of a vertical garden with 35 species of plants, a herbal garden, water lilies from Thailand and several other rare plants from across the world. More than 500 species of plants are being grown in the area, in addition to the 80 trees that was already in existence during the development of the park, some of them being more than 100 years old. The garden houses some of the popular exotic flora and rare plant species, medicinal and aromatic herbs. Many of the exotic plants are imported from countries like China and Thailand, including a plethora of bonsai varieties of ficus, microcarpa and ficus ginseng.
The garden has a wide variety of indigenous species across 22 exclusive areas including palm court, tree court, golden garden, rock garden, butterfly garden, fern garden and theme garden. Twenty-five thematic gardens, including herbal, aromatic, maze and cascade adorn every corner of the park. The garden boasts several exotic herbal species and 90-odd spiralshaped and multi-branched miniature trees grown in containers. The Bonsai garden is dotted with trees whose height range from 1 foot to 4 feet. At the fag end of the park is the Cascade garden.
The arch near the entrance plaza is a vertical garden which is a unique feature of the botanical garden. The vertical garden, with an inbuilt irrigation and drain system for easy maintenance, is 22 feet long and 14 feet high intended to improve the scenic beauty of the park at the entrance. The arch is covered by 7,000 plants from 35 different species including dracena, lilies, ophiopogon, schefflera, phylloden-dron and flowering plants like krishnagantha. The 10-feet-high green wall has plants raised in a poly trace imported from Canada. Micro-tube irrigation has been arranged for watering the plants. The plants cling to the 700-sq.ft. wall, which serves as the entry point.
A butterfly garden near the cascade fountains along the Anna flyover has been carved up into the shape of a butterfly, with flowering plants of more than 30 species completely fenced. The aroma garden acts as a welcoming greenhouse for winged visitors, with species like parijatham and pavalamalli found to flock the place in bulk. An amphitheatre with concrete benches and covered by ferns has been built on the rear side of garden to host social and cultural functions. Other features of the garden include disabled-friendly ramps, a mural walk-through, and areas dotted with fountains, vertical gardens, ponds and cascades.
Among the other government figures who attended the inauguration ceremony were Deputy Chief Minister M K Stalin, Agriculture Minister Veerapandi S Arumugam, Revenue Minister I Periyasami and Chennai Mayor M Subramanian, apart from a host of other ministers and DMK functionaries.
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