Taj formula to help protect Victoria

Taking a cue from the Uttar Pradesh (UP) government, the West Bengal government will adopt mass scale tulsi (Ocimum tenuiflorum) plantation to protect heritage buildings and nature parks in the state from pollution.

The UP government was the first to adopt this formula to protect the Taj Mahal at Agra from pollution. As per the plan, the Uttar Pradesh government has decided to plant 10 lakh tulsi saplings near the Taj.

The idea appealed to the West Bengal forest department, which wants to undertake a similar plan to protect heritage buildings in the state. The department asked its officials to identify heritage buildings around which plantation of tulsi saplings can be undertaken.
Not surprisingly the famous Victoria Memorial in Kolkata will be the first heritage structure where the tulsi project would be implemented.

“The huge garden in the Victoria Memorial complex, an ideal destination for morning walkers, will be ultilised for planting the saplings,” a senior forest department official said.

The advantages tulsi plants offer are purification of atmosphere, absorption of dust particles from air and de-activation of poisonous substances from atmosphere. “Hence, tulsi plants are ideal to protect heritage buildings located in crowed localities or adjacent to industrial units,” the forest official said.