On five acres of land in Dr B R R Government Degree and PG College, Jadcherla (about 80 km from Hyderabad), the youngest state of India — Telangana.— has been depicted in a way that would make every Telanganite proud. The outline of the state, complete with 33 districts, has been drawn. Inside the symbolic districts are plants of all kinds — xerophytes, medicinal, spices and so on — not district-specific yet depicting the diversity of the Telugu-speaking state. If you are impressed, you'd happy to know that so was the Chief Minister of Telangana K Chandrashekhar Rao. He even heartily congratulated the brains behind this project, titled Telangana Botanical Gardens, Dr Sadasivaiah Sada, an Assistant Professor in the college's Botany department, just last week. "CM garu also sanctioned `50 lakh for our garden and made me the convenor of the project. I will initiate such gardens in the state's degree colleges that have the space for it," shares the proud professor.  

Manna Telangana | (Pic: Telangana Botanical Gardens)

It all started in March this year when the Kuntimaddi (Anantapur district)-born professor planned this botanical garden adjacent to a one acre garden he had already experimented with back in August 2019. "I visited several botanical gardens but none were in any specific shape. That's when I thought that I should create one in the shape of our state," says the 39-year-old professor. During the lockdown, he and a research scholar used to work for over 12 hours in the garden. "We literally became farmers," shares the jovial professor.

Meeting CM KCR | (Pic: Telangana Botanical Gardens)

To gather funds to fulfil his dream project, the professor, who did his Post Doctoral fellowship on 'The consequences of uranium mining in Kadapa and Anantapur district' from Sri Krishnadevaraya University, Anantapur, established the Association for Biodiversity Conservation and Development (ABCD) in 2015 and started a simple concept under it — donate one rupee every day for nature. In this way, they gathered seven lakh rupees, in which government money accounted for Rs 40,000, and went ahead, all guns blazing, to start their project. "Now that we have received more funds from the government, we can take the project to the next level, adding a stylish footpath between the districts and so on," reveals the educator.  

Let's plant | (Pic: Telangana Botanical Gardens)

In five districts of the garden, saplings have been planted and are flourishing and now, the team is working rigorously on the rest, pumped by the appreciation they received from the Chief Minister and also the whole state. "Every district has a different kind of plant and by the end of it, this garden will truly transform into what our state stands for today, diversity and youthful energy," says the professor and signs off.  

There is so much more to the professor:
- Conducted snake awareness sessions in 812 colleges and schools of the state and every few weekends, catches snakes and releases them into the forest
- Discovered two new species of plants and named one after Telangana
- Distributed 10,000 fruit-yielding saplings in Narsingpally and Manajipet

For more on them, check out facebook.com/Telanganabotanicalgarden