New Rs 45 lakh music park in Sirsi to showcase instrument-making trees

The Biodiversity Committee of the Sirsi City Municipal Council has developed 'Sangeeta Vana', a unique music park showcasing trees and plants used to craft traditional musical instruments, at Vishal Nagar in Sirsi town, Uttara Kannada district. Conceived in 2023, the park is spread across 15 guntas and is expected to be inaugurated in a couple of months.

Developed at a cost of about Rs 45 lakh, the park aims to highlight the connection between nature and music by cultivating more than 100 species of trees and plants. The species grown include teak, jackfruit, ebony, mahogany, red sanders, and Alexandrian laurel, which are traditionally used to craft string, percussion, wind, and idiophone instruments such as the veena, tambura, tabla, mridanga, flute, nadaswaram, and sitar.

To educate visitors, information panels have been placed beside each tree. These panels explain which instruments the wood is used for, where the species grows, the qualities that make it suitable for instrument-making, how long the tree takes to mature, and why its conservation is important.

"Today, very few people realise that many of the tree species used in making instruments are slowly disappearing," said K V Umapathi Bhat, a botanist and member of the biodiversity committee.

In addition to instrument-making trees, the park nurtures medicinal plants traditionally believed to support vocal health.

At the entrance, visitors are greeted by a statue of Goddess Saraswati. Beyond the entrance, the park features sculptures of renowned musicians and cultural icons depicted with their signature instruments. The space also functions as an outdoor classroom with knowledge panels introducing visitors to the lives of eminent musicians, leading music universities, the fundamentals of swaras and talas, and the history and evolution of Indian musical instruments.