Tissue culture lab for generating threatened Delhi trees in works

In a bid to generate saplings of threatened or rare native Delhi trees, the city’s forest and wildlife department is setting up a tissue culture laboratory at the Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary. If successfully established, this will be the first plant tissue culture laboratory under the Delhi forest department, though such projects have been carried out across the country, including Delhi, in the past. A forest department official said the initial list prepared consists of species that are likely to be suitable for tissue culture practices, and that the list will be updated based on the growth shown by different plants and trees. Faiyaz Khudsar, scientist-in-charge of DDA’s biodiversity parks programme, said that tissue culture is one way of bringing back some native Delhi trees, which are no longer found here.