Frankly, I had never heard of this place. Once we came to know that there was a botanical garden in Kalpetta and that too in the name of the world famous agricultural scientist, Dr. M S Swaminathan, we decided to visit it. Apparently, the land of 20 acres has been donated by Dr. Swaminathan. The institute is actually a NGO supported by the Dept. of Science and Technology, Govt. of India. Its headquarters is in Chennai. The institute offers courses on wildlife sciences, forestry, wildlife photography among others. They have a medicinal plant area where some rare and threatened plant and herb species are preserved. The institute is not generally open to the public. However, the director was kind enough to depute a young PhD graduate from Kerala Agricultural University to show us around. She enthusiastically explained every plant and herb to us. As a policy the institute employs only locals. The women we met were very quite knowledgeable. Other then endangered plants and herbs, the institute has planted a lot of trees of the region. They also have a area where different banana trees are grown. This is one place that cannot be missed!

Though nobody say it as a tourist attraction, we enjoyed a lot.. It is a research institute by famous agriculturist MS Swaminathan. A must visit if you are nature lover. They explain about various medicinal plants. You can also buy small plants at very cheap price. .. They have dormitory n individual rooms for guest stay too. You can book by calling or visiting website. Charges@₹400 / bed... Would definitely recommend...

The Garden is in about 10 ha of land, and has 10 major zones and 6 minor components that are under development with diverse representative species of tropical flora. The Garden pays special attention to conservation of Rare, Endemic and Threatened (RET) species of southern Western Ghats. A total of 2,033 live plant species have now been conserved in the Garden, of which 512 are endemic to Western Ghats and 579 falling under IUCN’s threatened plant species category.

Nice place to visit,

Good experience, but not everyone's cup of tea

We will get information about plants, trees and birds in the garden, the garden is about 40 acres we will be able to walk through entire garde, calm and nice place

I was there in mssrf for around 5 years. They are researching on arobiodiversity for around last 20 years.

Getting Close to Nature

Very informative 👏 👌

Good collection of rare plants, great place for birding.

on your own to look around orchids, exotic plants, creeping plants

Unfortunately we reached after closing. So, could not able to see what is there.

Great Area dedicated to advanced nature

Nature friendly office

Excellent