Kadalundy: The Union Government's urban city forest project is set to take root at the 'Itty Achuthan Memorial Hortus Malabaricus Sasya Sarvaswam,' a botanical garden managed by the Forest Department in Chaliyam.

In the first phase of the ambitious Rs 44 crores project, 7000 tree saplings will be planted on 10 acres of land in the park. 

A dragonfly park, an eco-friendly walkway, a timber yard, and apartments will also be built as part of the project next to the Tirur station. The Chaliyan Forest Conservation Committee, part of the Forest Department, will be responsible for maintenance and conservation. 

Hortus Malabaricus is a 17th-century botanical treatise on the medicinal properties of the flora of the Malabar coast and compiled by Hendrik van Rheede, the Governor of Dutch Malabar, with the help of Itty Achudan, a distinguished herbalist, and several traditional medical practitioners from Kerala.

In 2010, the Kerala Forest Department launched an ambitious project to set up Sasya Sarvaswam in a forest land owned by Forest Department in Chaliyam. The botanical garden conserves 500 plants out of the 742 medicinal plants recounted in Hendrik Van Rheede’s ‘Hortus Malabaricus'. Here, the students and researchers can get first-hand exposure to various medicinal plants and trees.