Madurai top cop sets up ‘Silambam Park’ in office

The plot of ‘Silapathikaram’, written by legendary poet Ilangovadigal, revolves around Madurai and in the epic, Kannagi would have burnt Madurai for the injustice meted to her over the death of her husband Kovalan. However, in the epic when Kovalan and Kannagi were on their way to Madurai from Kadachanendhal, they had sung a song on the beauty of the trees planted around the Vaigai river. In the song, they mentioned 24 varieties of trees. Manivannan decided to find out all the varieties mentioned in Silapathikaram and sought the help of experts. He approached people with a literary background and nature enthusiasts to identify the trees.

After months of search, he collected all the 24 varieties of saplings and that too in large numbers. Following it, on Wednesday, he planted 110 saplings of 24 varieties of trees. Addressing the media, he said the park would be called ‘Silambam Park’ as the trees are those mentioned in Silapathikaram.

The SP’s office is located on the way to Madurai from Kadachanendhal and so the location of the ‘Silambam Park’ is based on the poems from Silapathikaram. In three months, the saplings would grow into trees and a canteen would be setup in the park for people to rest and have food. A borewell has been dug and from it, water is supplied through drip irrigation. The maintenance of the borewell, drip irrigation and trees will be taken care of by a private player so that even if he’s transferred, the maintenance work would continue, said Manivannan.