Stately-looking trees tower over the dense undergrowth of bushes and shrubs. Thick-stemmed lianas hang, snake-like, from low branches. For all that, to the casual observer, it could be just another wooded area.
Botanists would be quick to dispel the notion. The plant species in this sylvan location at Palode are, for the most part, extremely rare non-natives.
Nestled in the extensive grounds of the Jawaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute (JNTBGRI), this 30-acre sprawl has been a second home to Andaman and Nicobar flora since 1994. The sea, perhaps, is the only thing missing here from their original home. The ‘Field Conservatory of Andaman and Nicobar Plants,’ located in the foothills of the Western Ghats, is at the heart of a new JNTBGRI project to develop a biorepository on plant diversity specific to the Andaman Islands.
