Roshanara Bagh nurses 160K saplings in 5mnths

The Roshanara Bagh nursery-a high-tech conservatory the Municipal Corporation of Delhi reopened after major upgrades five months ago - has produced more than 160,000 saplings, with temperature and humidity control features allowing a variety of plants, including those alien to this climate and terrain, to be grown any time of the year.

- Paras Singh

Civic officials said that besides revenue savings - saplings can now be grown around the year instead of in limited windows -the first such climate-controlled facility may now be opened to tours for school students, similar to how botanical gardens works.

But experts have raised concerns over the cultivation of some non-native species, such as pines, and said that care must be taken in how the horticulture department goes about growing such plants.

MCD opened the nursery at Roshanara Bagh on December 30 after lieutenant governor VK Saxena directed officials to develop a "world-class nursery" on the 8.5-acre site, which earlier lay covered with construction and demolition waste.