Central Railway turns scrap-strewn plot into butterfly garden at Wadibunder

Before: Scrap littered the space at Wadibunder rail yard; (right) After: The mess gone, the area now has many saplings

An old dumping ground inside Wadibunder rail yard has now been transformed into a butterfly garden filled with hundreds of flower plants. At the same time, the Central Railway has also created a herb garden at CSMT and a Miyawaki forest at Kurla LTT.

"It is a first of a kind of a project and the concept of a butterfly garden has worked well. Done in coordination with an NGO, ‘Go Shoonya' old dump site was chosen, cleaned up and developed into this," a senior railway official said.

"There are 150 species of butterflies found in Mumbai. The butterfly garden is a combination of plants that can host a butterfly through its life cycle and also provide it with nectar from flowers. The butterfly garden with several indigenous and fragrant species of flowering plants is a treat for nature lovers. The garden also has jet watering facilities to provide a vibrant atmosphere," said the official.

The garden, which sits close to Wadibunder's New Coaching Complex, is spread over 2,000 square feet and has more than 400 species of plants, including dark blue tiger (Tirumala limniace), blue mormon, tawny rajah (Charaxes bernardus), striped tiger (Danaus genutia), orchid tit, common jezebel (Delias eucharis), tawny coster (Acraea violae) and restricted spotted and flat. plant species like champa, jaswand, tagar, ananta, mogra, kaner, lantana, jamaican spine, kamini, lily and aboli, that are known to attract butterflies, said the official.

The Central Railway has also set up herbal gardens at CSMT and Igatpuri and a Miyawaki forest at LTT. The gardens at CSMT and Igatpuri have over 120 and 470 different species of herbal plants and shrubs, respectively. They boast of plants like ashwagandha, adusa, ajwain, apamarg, bramhi, elachi, pepper, shatavari, tulsi , anjeer, turmeric, insulin, giloi and clove that are effective against a number of ailments.

At Kurla LTT, the railways has grown 1,000 plants on a 250 square metre (2,690 sq ft) space using the Miyawaki dense plantation technique in which 3 to 4 saplings are planted per square metre.

120
Varieties of herbal plants and shrubs at the CSMT garden