German botanist who made B’luru bloom all year through

Bengaluru: It’s March and Bengaluru has been transformed into a ‘pink city’, with flowers like Tabebuias and Jacarandas seen in full bloom across parks and streets, providing the much-needed joy after a dull year marred by the Covid-19 pandemic. Christened as Garden City, Bengaluru, is dotted with varieties of flowers throughout the year and this amazing feat is widely attributed to contributions from erstwhile rulers, government officials and most importantly a German botanist.

Interestingly, the story of how Bengaluru eventually got the Garden City tag dates back to 1760, when erstwhile ruler Hyder Ali commissioned the development of Lal Bagh, which was inspired from the Mughal Gardens in Delhi. Though commissioned by Hyder Ali, the garden was eventually completed by Tipu Sultan. According to the horticulture department, Lal Bagh is home to a tree planted by Tipu himself.

The development was taken over by the British after their conquest of the city, but it was a German horticulturist Gustav Hermann Krumbiegel who changed the way the city looks today. In 1908, the Maharaja of Mysore offered Krumbiegel the job of redesigning Lal Bagh after witnessing his work in Baroda.

In his book `The City Beautiful’, TP Issar, former chief secretary of Karnataka and chairman of the Urban Arts Commission wrote that Krumbiegel worked not only in developing Lal Bagh but several other gardens in the city as well. “Many of the lines and clusters of Cassias, Gulmohars, Tabebuias and Bougainvillea, which we see today, are enduring manifestations of Krumbiegel’s dreams of a blossoming Bangalore,” he wrote.

Between1908 and 1932, Krumbiegel introduced several species of flowers including Tabebuias, which are native to tropical America. Krumbiegel also introduced a system called ‘serial planting’ to ensure that all streets in Bengaluru would be planted with seasonally-flowering trees so that the city would bloom all year through.

“He planned the trees in such a way that Bombax Ceiba will bloom in January, Pongams in February, Pink Tabebuias and Purple Jacarandas in March, Cassia Javanica in April, Scarlet Gulmohar in May, Pink Bauhinias in June, Rain Tree in July, Colvillea Racemosa in August, Golden Cassia in September, Amherstia in October and November, and fragrant white Millingtonia in December,” says author Shobha Narayan.

Interestingly, the man who changed Bengaluru’s face was imprisoned by the British Army and was deported back to Germany. However, the Maharajah of Mysore managed to get him out both the times, according to records. Krumbiegel stayed on in the city as a consulting architect and advisor in horticulture and town planning till his death in 1956. Over the years, several more trees were added by the city administration.

However, according to activists, this tree cover is slowly getting lost. Vijay Nishant, an environmentalist, who is also known as the tree doctor, said that during his surveys he found that the recent development work has changed the ecosystem in the city.

“We were used to trees blooming throughout the year in the 1990s but now, it has changed drastically. We are seeing more of certain flowers. We are conducting a survey, which we hope will shed some light on which trees needs to be planted to balance this change,” he said.

At the same time, Harini Nagendra, a Bengaluru based ecologist, said that there is a need for variety in trees planted in the newly developed areas in Bengaluru. “If you compare with other cities, we have always had a wide variety of trees and flowers, many of them were exotic flowers brought from abroad thanks to Krumbiegel. But in the new areas that are developing, there are just two or three varieties of trees that are planted. This needs to be looked at,” she said.