A truly remarkable project on Lalbagh! It would be wonderful if similar studies are undertaken in other Indian cities as well...

USING SATELLITE IMAGERY AND HISTORICAL MAPS TO STUDY THE ORIGINAL CONTOURS OF LALBAGH BOTANICAL GARDEN
By Meera Iyer, Harini Nagendra and M. B. Rajani

The Lalbagh Botanical Garden in Bangalore, one of the country’s oldest botanical gardens, has a long history. In 1760, Hyder Ali established a garden here, which was later expanded by his son Tipu Sultan. After Tipu was defeated and killed in 1799, the stewardship of Lalbagh passed through several hands before finally being taken over by the then Government of Mysore and made the Government Gardens.

It is generally believed that the garden that Hyder Ali set up in 1760 was located north of and adjacent to the Lalbagh tank. For example, maps published by the Department of Horticulture, Govern- ment of Karnataka depict the garden between 1760 and 1856 covering a roughly rectangular patch of about 40 acres adjacent to the tank (Figure 1).

Using a combination of historical maps, old paintings and recent remotely sensed images, we have examined the actual boundaries of the garden as it was in the period of Tipu.

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