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OFFTRACK: BHUBANESWAR, ORISSA
Crown
of Thorns
A botanist's name game gives a plant
centre a chance at survival.
By Ruben Banerjee
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SPINE THRILLER: Das holds one of the hybrids created
at the Bhubaneswar institution
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The
congregation could have few parallels. On the outskirts of Bhubaneswar,
refreshingly free from the usual high-security bandobast are gathered
an impressive lot. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee shares the front
row with former US First Lady and now New York Senator Hillary Clinton;
a few rows behind sit two personalities who had become icons in their
lifetime, Mother Teresa and Princess Diana. There are others in the gathering
who could cause many a heart to flip and heads to turn. Renowned scientist
M.S. Swaminathan rubs shoulders with Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik
while Union Agriculture Minister Nitish Kumar pairs off with Noble laureate
Amartya Sen.
Luckily, no hassles mar this gathering. The
crowds mill around but the VIPs throw no tantrums. Even if something should
happen the luminaries would stand rooted to the spot. For, though the
names they bear may be suitable to a who's who, they are but spiny plants
of different sizes, shapes and colours.
They are all variations of cacti. The Regional
Plant Resource Centre of Bhubaneswar immortalises the new hybrids they
create with distinctive names: be it those of a prime minister, a chief
minister, a saint or a scientist. "And why not?" argues Premananda
Das, director of the state Government-run centre, "just as parents
are free to name their children, we have the right to name our creations."
This is one instance of name-calling when no
one's complaining. A couple of months ago, Das handed over to the prime
minister a plant that has been christened Atal. Holding on to his namesake,
Vajpayee only smiled in glee.
Spread over 480 acres, the centre came up in
1985. In the intervening years, it grew from a green idyll to become the
single-largest collection of cacti in India. Of the 1,200 species known
worldwide, the centre houses 550. Plus, it has over 1,050 variations developed
by its botanists. At last count, the centre boasted of over two lakh cacti
plants.
But what surpasses the centre's draw as the
biggest collector of cacti are the big names that it boasts of. Of course,
there are critics who say that the obsession with the succulents is a
waste. Cacti, after all, are decorative plants with little social value.
And even as he parries this allegation, Das faces his most common accusation:
that he constantly tries to curry favour with the high and mighty by naming
plants after them.
But Das knows the name game helps the centre.
Though it has nine divisions for frontier research in various plants and
species and the work at the centre is recognised by at least eight Indian
universities for the award of doctoral degrees, much of the collective
hope of the Regional Plant Resource Centre rests squarely on the cacti.
Several researchers have earned their doctorates on the prickly plants,
figuring out the nuances of their body, colour, form, spination and geometry.
But the centre is grappling with a resource crunch-the annual allocation
is Rs 77 lakh while the wage bill alone is over Rs 1 crore. That is where
the names come in. "Without the nomenclature you would not have been
interested enough to come and write about us," says Das with a candour
born of confidence.
The naming experiment seems to be working. With
a complex botanical name like Gymnocalycium mihanovichii a new cactus
developed some years ago would have evinced no interest. But once it was
named Dr J.B. Patnaik after the then state chief minister, it was a different
story. Similarly, when Nitish Kumar and his deputy Debendra Pradhan visited
the centre recently, two new variations were named Nitish and Debendra.
The ministers went back pleased. Can help from Delhi be far behind?
The cactus, with its bulbous body and prickly
hair, may not be aesthetically pleasing. But for a group in Bhubaneswar
it's a feather in their cap. Or should we say, a crown, literally, of
thorns?
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