Sera Garden emerging as popular picnic spot
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, October 25 2022:
With eco-tourism offering a nature-friendly recreational destination, several garden parks are springing up in different parts of the state with their own unique tastes.
Amid the growing number of such destinations, Sera Garden in Keirao Wangkhem, Imphal East is emerging as a popular picnic spot for many.
Located along the foothill of Ngariyan hill on the eastern side of Keirao Wangkhem village at a distance of about 7 km from Imphal East district headquarters, Sera Garden is an orchard farm cum park developed by Salam Samarendro.
He started his endeavour in 2007 on a piece of land spread around 3hectares.Though no formal inauguration of the garden park has been conducted, it is gradually drawing attention of the public.
In the initial stage, former chief secretary Jarnail Singh and his wife Seraphina visited the garden park and encouraged Samarendro for his work.
Impressed by the kind hearted words of inspiration of Seraphina, the owner named his garden as Sera Garden.
The garden is filled with different varieties of plants such as Chikoo or Sapota, Litchi, Guava, Sweet Lemon (Mosambi), Star Fruit (Heinoujom), Lemon and Orange as well as different medicinal plants.
He brought saplings of Chikoo/Sapota from Thailand as a trial to evaluate soil and climate suitability.
He succeeded in his trial and now people are visiting his garden to get saplings of the plant.
Samarendro told The People's Chronicle that he got the idea of his garden park upon seeing orchids, fruit bearing trees in the foothills of Ngariyan.
After years of efforts, he is now able to earn a decent income from the fruits produced in his garden park, which he is planning to use in developing his farm as an eco-tourism park.
About one of his fondest experiences, Samarendro said that now he could see several unknown birds in his park and he is happy that he could provide a natural habitat to the wildlife.
He also said that the soil is so fertile that any plants could flourish in his farm and he could provide nursery plants to the people.
Even people from Noney district are visiting his park to buy nursery plants, he said.
He also confided that he is planning to grow more medicinal plants in his park through grafting and other techniques.
He informed that he works for a minimum of five hours in his park to look after his plants.
There are also six ponds in his park where he rear different species of fishes for commercial purpose, he added.
Keirao Wangkhem has a geographical area of around 563.86 hectares and has around 227 households with a population of around 1071 people.
The villagers reside on either sides of the house in a linear pattern.
The village has the state's lone TB hospital, which was inaugurated by chief minister N Biren on Decembers, 2018.However, the hospital, which was constructed at a cost of Rs 8.74 crore, is lying without fulfilling its intended purpose.
Considering the condition of the hospital, where no TB patients visit, the local residents are wondering if the government could convert it into a health centre to facilitate public healthcare services to the people of the surrounding areas.
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