Medicinal Garden lies neglected

DHENKANAL: A model medicinal garden project under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) at Sogar village has suffered a setback for lack of planning and coordination among officials concerned. The garden of medicinal plants was to be developed over 595 acres in the village under the MGNREGS at a cost of Rs 11.40 crore.Foundation stone for the project was laid by the Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on September 16 last year. The district forest department is executing the project under the supervision of the DFO.The project included plantation of medicinal saplings, construction of a research centre, a water harvesting structure and many other mini-irrigation projects on the garden premises. However, over a year has passed since the foundation stone was laid but no water harvesting structure or other water supply source has been set up under the project.As a result, there is no adequate water supply for the 64,000 plants in the garden. The forest workers mostly use water tankers to water the plants. This too is not feasible every time.Sources also alleged that no soil tests were done before finalisation of the plants that would be grown in the garden which is mostly rocky. As the project site lacks a boundary wall, elephants recently destroyed many plants.DFO S K Dalai admitted no soil test was done before plantation was carried out and water has become a challenge for the plantation project. “We have decided to provide a tube-well facility and construct water harvesting structures soon,” he said.Dalai said saplings of amla, neem and bamboo have already been planted in the garden and Rs 71 lakh had been spent under the project.