PANAJI: Pratap Naik, a Jesuit priest, has created a small island of green in coastal Goa that has around 300 plant species, scores of birds and a couple of tortoises.
The green shelter is located in the yard of a research institution in a suburb of Panaji. Naik heads the institute, which is studying the local Konkani language.
Naik, 52, wants to grow one of every fruit-bearing tree that is found in this former Portuguese colony, rich in plant diversity. A significant part of this richness is due to plant exchanges by the former rulers.
Many months of hard work have seen Naik piece together a well-maintained and neatly labelled botanical garden. You can read the local names in Konkani, the botanical names as well as the plant's English names. He also keeps a list of the native countries of the plants adopted in Goa.
In one corner you can find 'ainno madd' (the fan palm in English, or livistona rotundifolia' as it is known by its botanical name), from tropical America.
There's the 'ambaddo', dismissively perhaps called the hog-plum (spondias pinnata) that traces its origins to India itself.
'Kalljirem' (black cumin, nigella sativa) is of Indian origin. 'Gazgo' (the fever nut or Caesalpinia bonduc) is, again, of Indian origin.
Naik has already found the names of 325 species from among the 329 he planted. "Some don't have names in Konkani (the local language)" because of their exotic origins, he says.
But giving names to plants is not too difficult for this linguist. It should fit a couple of criteria. Firstly, the sound should be like that of a Konkani word. Secondly, it should fit into the grammar pattern of the local lingo.
For instance, he points to a particular hibiscus, which rotates with the movement of the sun. It also changes its colour from crystal white to dark pink, at different times of the day.
"We call it the girgitti dasan (or unsteady dasan, the latter being the local word for hibiscus)," he explains.
Naik's collection doesn't include wild plants. But he has bought and planted "almost any Goan edible fruit". Most were purchased from Mapusa, a nearby area that has a colourful weekly market each Friday.
"It started as a hobby, but has become a way of life," explains the priest. "When you get up in the morning, the compound is filled with music (of birds, reared and wild ones attracted by the plants). It starts from 4 a.m. onwards."
This oasis of green, amidst a growing concrete jungle, is a refuge for a whole lot of local and migratory birds.
"I don't allow anyone to touch their nests, kill a single bird, or reptile. Everyone is welcome to look and observe them, but not to disturb them."
He calls his green patch a "kind of shock absorber" in a centre of urbanisation.
Naik has purchased plants costing as little as Rs.5. Costly species go up to Rs.700-1,000 a piece. "Palms are very expensive," says he.
There are no roses. "It's useless in this soil," says Naik, whose sanctuary is perched atop the locality of Alto Porvorim. As the 'alto' prefix suggests, it's the hilltop of a former village, which has barren soil.
Naik now has more than 15 varieties of mango, the king of fruits.
To make the place colourful, he has brought in some birds - guinea fowls, local fowls, local and Manila ducks, geese, and even a fighter cock. He has a dozen or so tortoises.
"My desire is to build a snake park, but for that I was told that permission from the authorities would be required. Outside our compound people keep killing snakes. I go out and bring them in."
But, he adds, Jesuits themselves have had a "great tradition in botany".
He cites the example of Jesuit Pallithanam, a southern Indian priest based in Goa who taught a generation of students the subject at the North Goa-based St Xavier's College.
One of Naik's own goals is to come out with a book, showing all the local plants in their flowering state.
The green shelter is located in the yard of a research institution in a suburb of Panaji. Naik heads the institute, which is studying the local Konkani language.
Naik, 52, wants to grow one of every fruit-bearing tree that is found in this former Portuguese colony, rich in plant diversity. A significant part of this richness is due to plant exchanges by the former rulers.
Many months of hard work have seen Naik piece together a well-maintained and neatly labelled botanical garden. You can read the local names in Konkani, the botanical names as well as the plant's English names. He also keeps a list of the native countries of the plants adopted in Goa.
In one corner you can find 'ainno madd' (the fan palm in English, or livistona rotundifolia' as it is known by its botanical name), from tropical America.
There's the 'ambaddo', dismissively perhaps called the hog-plum (spondias pinnata) that traces its origins to India itself.
'Kalljirem' (black cumin, nigella sativa) is of Indian origin. 'Gazgo' (the fever nut or Caesalpinia bonduc) is, again, of Indian origin.
Naik has already found the names of 325 species from among the 329 he planted. "Some don't have names in Konkani (the local language)" because of their exotic origins, he says.
But giving names to plants is not too difficult for this linguist. It should fit a couple of criteria. Firstly, the sound should be like that of a Konkani word. Secondly, it should fit into the grammar pattern of the local lingo.
For instance, he points to a particular hibiscus, which rotates with the movement of the sun. It also changes its colour from crystal white to dark pink, at different times of the day.
"We call it the girgitti dasan (or unsteady dasan, the latter being the local word for hibiscus)," he explains.
Naik's collection doesn't include wild plants. But he has bought and planted "almost any Goan edible fruit". Most were purchased from Mapusa, a nearby area that has a colourful weekly market each Friday.
"It started as a hobby, but has become a way of life," explains the priest. "When you get up in the morning, the compound is filled with music (of birds, reared and wild ones attracted by the plants). It starts from 4 a.m. onwards."
This oasis of green, amidst a growing concrete jungle, is a refuge for a whole lot of local and migratory birds.
"I don't allow anyone to touch their nests, kill a single bird, or reptile. Everyone is welcome to look and observe them, but not to disturb them."
He calls his green patch a "kind of shock absorber" in a centre of urbanisation.
Naik has purchased plants costing as little as Rs.5. Costly species go up to Rs.700-1,000 a piece. "Palms are very expensive," says he.
There are no roses. "It's useless in this soil," says Naik, whose sanctuary is perched atop the locality of Alto Porvorim. As the 'alto' prefix suggests, it's the hilltop of a former village, which has barren soil.
Naik now has more than 15 varieties of mango, the king of fruits.
To make the place colourful, he has brought in some birds - guinea fowls, local fowls, local and Manila ducks, geese, and even a fighter cock. He has a dozen or so tortoises.
"My desire is to build a snake park, but for that I was told that permission from the authorities would be required. Outside our compound people keep killing snakes. I go out and bring them in."
But, he adds, Jesuits themselves have had a "great tradition in botany".
He cites the example of Jesuit Pallithanam, a southern Indian priest based in Goa who taught a generation of students the subject at the North Goa-based St Xavier's College.
One of Naik's own goals is to come out with a book, showing all the local plants in their flowering state.
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