Among the many flower nurseries in
Kalimpong, Pine View Nursery has emerged as one of the important tourist
attraction in the sub-division. Both domestic and international
tourists flock the nursery on a daily basis to enjoy the amazing display
of flowers. Chief among the many flower species displayed in the
nursery is the cactus collection, which has left the tourists awestruck.
A tourist from Kolkata, Rajesh Banerjee
says, “The display of cactus is the most beautiful and mesmerizing part
because I always believed cactus is found only in desert. To see them in
the hills is something completely new for me.”
Notably, the Pine View Nursery houses
more than 15 hundred varieties of cactuses, each with unique flowering
pattern and characteristic shapes. Situated just 2km away from
Kalimpong, the nursery has established itself has one of the largest
cactus nursery in Asia.
Looking at the memorial made within the
nursery for its founder late Mohan Shamsher Pradhan, a Delhi-based
tourist family said, “A person having such an idea is truly a genius and
is hard to comprehend how he managed to get such a huge collection and
that too in the cold climate of the hills.” Similarly, many tourists who
visit Kalimpong not only praise the nursery but also its founder’s
effort for taking it to the position it currently enjoys.
With an aim to have a personal nursery
for his love of plants and flowers, Pradhan started the nursery 42 years
ago. He used to grow orchids initially and continued from there to
expand the nursery, which ultimately became his life’s work and a
legacy.
Floriculture was just a hobby in those
days and with minimum materials and techniques available for orchid
farming, Pradhan started to grow cactus. His collected different species
of cactus from as far as North, Central and South America and used to
bring it back to Kalimpong and grow and care for it. Due to his hard
work and dedication the Pine View Nursery has made its name across the
world.
Following Pradhan’s death in 2011, the
nursery is now run by his wife Dhanu Pradhan and daughter Namanita
Pradhan. Dhanu said “We are now ready to make my husband’s vision even
bigger and help it grow beyond his dreams.”(EOIC)