Semmozhi Poonga, variously spelled as Semmoli Poonga (literally translated to "Classical Language Park"), is a

botanical garden A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens, an ...

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

set up jointly by the Horticulture and Agricultural Engineering department of the

Government of Tamil Nadu Government of Tamil Nadu is the subnational government for the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is seated at Fort St George, Chennai. The legislature of Tamil Nadu was bicameral until 1986, when it was replaced by a unicameral legislature ...

. The garden was opened on 24 November 2010 by then chief Minister

M. Karunanidhi Muthuvel Karunanidhi (3 June 1924 – 7 August 2018) was an Indian writer and politician who served as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for almost two decades over five terms between 1969 and 2011. He was popularly referred to as Kalaignar (Art ...

and is the first botanical garden in the city. The garden is located in the Cathedral Road–

Anna Salai Anna Salai (), formerly known as St. Thomas Mount Road or simply Mount Road, is an arterial road in Chennai, India. It starts at the Cooum Creek, south of Fort St George, leading in a south-westerly direction towards St. Thomas Mount, and e ...

junction, opposite the

American Consulate The United States has the second most diplomatic missions of any country in the world after Mainland China, including 166 of the 193 member countries of the United Nations, as well as observer state Vatican City and non-member countries Kosovo a ...

, on the erstwhile Drive-in Woodlands Hotel. Encompassing an area of 20 acres (320 grounds), it was built at a cost of 80 million. More than 500 species of plants are being grown in the area, in addition to the 80 trees that was already in existence during the development of the park, some of them being more than 100 years old. The garden houses some of the popular exotic flora and rare plant species, medicinal and aromatic herbs. Many of the exotic plants are imported from countries like

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

and

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

, including a plethora of

bonsai Bonsai ( ja, 盆栽, , tray planting, ) is the Japanese art of growing and training miniature trees in pots, developed from the traditional Chinese art form of '' penjing''. Unlike ''penjing'', which utilizes traditional techniques to produc ...

varieties of

ficus microcarpa ''Ficus microcarpa'', also known as Chinese banyan, Malayan banyan, Indian laurel, curtain fig, or , is a tree in the fig family Moraceae. It is native in a range from China through tropical Asia and the Caroline Islands to Australia. It is wide ...

and ficus ginseng.

History

The area in which the botanical garden stands today was formerly the location of the Woodlands Drive-In restaurant, the city's first drive-in restaurant, and the Agri-Horticultural Society. In April 1962, the Agri-Horticultural Society sub-leased the 18-acre land to hotelier K. Krishna Rau, who started the Woodlands Drive-in Hotel on 15 April 1962. It was an extension of the "Woodlands" brand, then popular in the city as the only "Indian hotel." In 1982, the annual

Chennai Book Fair Chennai Book Fair (earlier Madras Book Fair) is an annual book fair organized in Chennai (the capital of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu) by the Booksellers and Publishers Association of South India (BAPASI). The fair typically lasts for about ...

conducted by BAPASI was held in the hotel premises. Early in 1989, the Tamil Nadu Government had set in motion the closure of the restaurant. After almost two decades, the restaurant ended its operation on 12 April 2008, and through a High Court order after a prolonged legal battle, the land was handed over to the government, where it planned to set up the botanical garden, a research centre and a green house for developing rare species of medicinal and non-medicinal plants and flowers. On 13 November 2009, the Supreme Court gave its consent to the state government to set up the garden. The garden has been christened such to commemorate the Classical Tamil Conference, which was held earlier in 2010. The cost of the land was valued at more than 10,000 million at the time of opening. The government appointed a city-based firm of architects—Rajendra Associates—as consultant to design, supervise and manage the project.

The garden

The garden features eight subgardens displaying flora of different varieties, such as a tree court, mural walk and bonsai, herbal and exotic gardens, in addition to an artificial duck pond. Incorporating elements of an Indian-Buddhist garden, the garden has a wide variety of indigenous species across 22 exclusive areas including palm court, tree court, golden garden (featuring plants that flower in different shades of gold), water and rock garden, butterfly garden, fern garden, sunken garden and theme garden. Twenty-five thematic gardens, including herbal, aromatic, maze and cascade adorn every corner of the park. The garden boasts several exotic herbal species and 90-odd spiral-shaped and multi-branched miniature trees grown in containers. The Bonsai garden is dotted with trees whose height range from 1 foot to 4 feet. At the fag end of the park is the Cascade garden. Semmozhi Poonga 5

The arch near the entrance plaza is a vertical garden which is a unique feature of the botanical garden. The vertical garden, with an inbuilt irrigation and drain system for easy maintenance, is 22 feet long and 14 feet high intended to improve the scenic beauty of the park at the entrance. The arch is covered by 7,000 plants from 35 different species including dracena,

lilies ''Lilium'' () is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants growing from bulbs, all with large prominent flowers. They are the true lilies. Lilies are a group of flowering plants which are important in culture and literature in much of the world. M ...

ophiopogon ''Ophiopogon'' (lilyturf) is a genus of evergreen perennial plants native to warm temperate to tropical East, Southeast, and South Asia. Despite their grasslike appearance, they are not closely related to the true grasses, the Poaceae. The name ...

schefflera ''Schefflera'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Araliaceae. With an estimated 600–900 species, the genus represents about half of its family. The plants are trees, shrubs or lianas, growing tall, with woody stems, the absence of a ...

philodendron ''Philodendron'' is a large genus of flowering plants in the family Araceae. , the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families accepted 489 species; other sources accept different numbers. Regardless of number of species, the genus is the second- ...

and flowering plants like krishnagantha. The 10-feet-high green wall has plants raised in a poly trace imported from

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

. Micro-tube irrigation has been arranged for watering the plants. The plants cling to the 700-sq.ft. wall, which serves as the entry point. A

butterfly Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group compris ...

garden near the cascade fountains along the

Anna flyover Anna Flyover, also known as Gemini Flyover, is a dual-armed grade separator in the central business district of Chennai, India. Built in 1973 and dubbed one of the top-rated flyovers in the country, it is Asia's First Grade Separator, the firs ...

has been carved up into the shape of a butterfly, with flowering plants of more than 30 species completely fenced. The aroma garden acts as a welcoming greenhouse for winged visitors, with species like parijatham and pavalamalli (''Nyctanthes arbor-tristis'') found to flock the place in bulk. An amphitheatre with concrete benches and covered by ferns has been built on the rear side of garden to host social and cultural functions. Other features of the garden include disabled-friendly ramps, a mural walk-through, and areas dotted with fountains, vertical gardens, ponds and cascades. Lights semmozhi

In the course of the construction, the garden has received nearly 800,000 worth plants from China. These include flowering cacti that have a velvety, light pink at the top, non-flowering

cacti A cactus (, or less commonly, cactus) is a member of the plant family Cactaceae, a family comprising about 127 genera with some 1750 known species of the order Caryophyllales. The word ''cactus'' derives, through Latin, from the Ancient Gree ...

with diameters up to about 45 cm, 'lucky'

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, ...

ficus ''Ficus'' ( or ) is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes and hemiepiphytes in the family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are native throughout the tropics with a few species extendi ...

and bonsai varieties. The cacti were planted in the cacti garden decorated with white marble chips, pebbles and rocks from

Porbandar Porbandar is a city in the Indian state of Gujarat, perhaps best known for being the birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi and Sudama. It is the administrative center of the Porbandar District and it was the former capital of the Porbandar princel ...

. The garden also received water lilies from Thailand and 12 varieties of orchids. There is also a plan to build a 10-ft-high monolithic structure, with 'Semmozhi Poonga' carved on it to welcome the visitors. There is an open auditorium in the garden, which is available on hire, to organise functions.

Maintenance

Located at the central business district of Chennai, the park attracts several visitor and film crews for filming in the location. This has created maintenance problem, whereby there are complaints that the cinema shooting crews made a dent in the park's salubrious environs by damaging tender plants.

Visitor information

The garden remains open for morning walkers from 6 am to 8 am. For visitors, the park remains open from 10 am through 8 pm on all days except Tuesdays. There is an open auditorium available within the garden which can be hired to organise functions. The garden has a parking lot that can accommodate around 100 cars and more than 500 two-wheelers. An entry fee of 15 is collected from all people above 10 years of age or 130 cm height. For the early morning walk, the entry is permitted only for monthly pass holders, for which 150 is charged.

References

External links