Visiting defence ministers, defence secretaries and officials of defence organisations have all planted trees here, in a special enclosure called Smritivan in the premises of Nisarga, the guesthouse of Bharat Electronics Limited, which also happens to be a defence organisation. Nisarga is located in Jalahalli, in the outskirts of the City.

Big names 
Defence Minister M M Pallam Raju planted a sapling in November last year and Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Arun Prakash planted a sapling in March last year. The names of all VIPs and the date on which they planted the saplings is put on a plaque near the saplings, some of which have now become trees.

Apart from Smitivan, the Nisarga campus is full of trees, some over a hundred years old. The huge imposing silk cotton tree, the flamboyant gulmohar, the ubiquitous rain tree, the serene bamboo grove, litchi tree, African chickoo, mahogany, the deciduous and evergreen legerstroemia, the fragrant eucalyptus and sandalwood, the majestic royal palms, ficus religiosa also popularly known as the peepul tree or the Bodhi tree, under which Gautama Buddha attained enlightenment and ficus glomerata. There is also a bamboo groove. Indeed it is a lesson in Botany as most of the tree species have been labelled.

A bit of history
Nisarga, the guest house, itself has a history of its own. Earlier it was a dispensary for the Italian prisoners of war (POWs). During World War II, the Italian prisoners of war were kept at the military camp in Jalahalli where later the Indian Air Force came up. The prisoners of war camp was considered the largest in Asia. The camp’s boundary was a little beyond St Peter’s seminary in Malleshwaram. Italian prisoners captured by the British in Europe and North Africa had been brought here following Italy’s surrender in Ethiopia.

POWs laid roads
These Italian POWs laid roads and played football with the local team. It is said that two of those Italians had died of snakebite mistaking a coiled cobra for a tennikoit ring. Even today a portion of Jalahalli is named a Naga Park.

Dispensary
There were also wounded soldiers who were treated at a dispensary. It is this dispensary that later became the BEL House, the official residence of the Chairman and Managing Director of BEL General Aiyappa. He is said to be the only occupant of BEL House, which later became Nisarga, the guest house of the public sector undertaking.