Japanese Garden at the Seminary Hills premises will slowly adorn a new look. With new toys, display boards, pagodas, the garden will give a happy and fresh feeling to the visitors. Japanese touch to the surroundings will be its main characteristic. Some enthusiastic morning walkers noticed the toys at the garden lying in a shabby state. The garden had become filthy place with all toys lying in a broken state. Taking serious cognisance of the sorry state affairs at the garden, the Forest Department, responsible for its upkeep, has started giving a facelift to one of the popular social spots of the city. Japanese Garden is a reserve forest area admeasuring about 65 hectares. This area has nearly 100 species of butterflies including bird species. The garden has 33 tree species of 20 families including teak and accredited with woody elements etc.

 

With a thought to preserve this garden by preserving all its natural values, Forest Department assigned the work of its renovation to Public Works Department which has been working on it. The work was started last year and is likely to be ready by January 2025. Dr Bharat Singh Hada, Deputy Conservator of Forests, Nagpur told ‘The Hitavada’, “We have planned to develop this garden in a different manner. As its name says, we thought it should have a Japanese touch. We are replacing all old equipment with the new and modern ones. In Japan, at most gardens, we find most structures made up of stones or wood. We are installing good and attractive statues in the garden plus there will be wooden or stone-made benches. It will give a soothing look to the premises.”

 

Forest Department wants to make these three places--Balodyan, walking track and Japanese Garden, one of the best tourist attractions of Central India. It wants that the garden should provide some information to people of all age groups. Considering this aspect, it has plan to put the boards on display which will have information about various species of butterfly, some birds, animals, trees. “Many time we hear some information about flora and fauna but we don’t know much details about them. With that thought we planned to install these boards. The information will be of common things,” elaborated Dr Hada. Satish Chafle, Structural Engineer with Public Works Department is working under Abhijeet Kuchewar, Executive Engineer and Sachin Jain, Proprietor of S A Jain Projects handling all the three projects. If one moves ahead towards the end of Japanese garden one would find a Badminton court, Forest department is mulling over reshaping the court. The department has also planned to develop meditation place but it has not finalised yet.