Meet the forest watcher who put his heart and soul into Kalkere forest

Conservationists and forest officers on Sunday felicitated Arogya Swamy, a forest watcher who performed a yeoman’s service in turning the barren land of the Kalkere reserve forest area into a tropical forest and Bengaluru’s first-of-its-kind arboretum.

An arboretum is a garden or park cultivated for the purpose of scientific study. The 120-acre forest, tucked a kilometre away from Bannerghatta Road near the Nice Road Junction, was the brainchild of former environment secretary A N Yellappa Reddy in 1978.

“Kalkere forest was a eucalyptus plantation. I was heading the research wing in the department and I heard that the government plans to denotify the forest land to build some infrastructure. I convinced the then forest minister G Rame Gowda about the need to compensate the city for removing hundreds of hectares of gundu thopu (forests for common use),” he said.

Reddy added that the minister welcomed the concept of ex situ arboretum. “I told him that students can’t go to the Western Ghats to study different forests. Ex situ involves cultivating such trees to create an evergreen, semi-evergreen and deciduous forest environment. We got seeds from the Western Ghats and worked on them for some years. Arogya Swamy, the watcher, protected the entire area 24X7,” he said.

At the event held on Sunday, Reddy said Swamy’s 40 years of work had given the “biggest oxygen bank and a unique study area”. “All credit should go to him. We are now proposing to the Forest Department to facilitate visits of high school children and researchers,” he said.

Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Surya Deo Pathak honoured Swamy, who retired about six months ago.

Ravindra T C of Indus Herbs said the 40 years of work showed the forests’ strength of natural regeneration. “The biodiversity has rebounded in the forest. It also shows the efforts needed to give forests a chance,” he added.

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