nagpur they say nature can teach us a lot more than textbooks can this truism was on display during the biodiversity park tour at raj bhavan where plants birds insects and ponds proved to be excellent schoolmasters for members of nagpur for kids nfk club on sunday afternoon the trek started with assistant director of bombay natural history society bnhs sanjay karkare briefing the kids about the history of raj bhavan and the park this was followed by a guided tour of the herbal garden where children got a chance to learn the medicinal values of different plants and herbs when a group of children recognized the sandalwood tree karkare told them that it is a partially parasitic tree as the roots of the plants are parasitic it cannot survive on its own and needs association with other plants so if you take sandalwood seeds and plant them at home the tree will not survive informed karkare the rose garden was next and with more than 250 kinds of the beautiful flower the garden proved to be a blissful setting for budding photographers the butterfly garden lifted the spirits of the kids where they saw various species of butterflies including plain tiger and grass yellow butterfly the trail had an abrupt break as the children saw a dead bat hanging from a manja thread educating the kids about the hazardous effects of using chinese manja bnhs education officer dp srivastava said the next time you buy a manja for kiteflying make sure that you dont go for nylon manja we are all naturelovers and we must protect it another attraction was the cactus garden which was earlier a dumping yard and now has more than 60 varieties of cacti the kids were intrigued to see the mexican fire plant which changes the colour of its leaves to brighter shades to attract insects the flowers of this plant are not very attractive so the plants compensates for it by changing the colour of its leaves to orange red and yellow srivastava told the kids he also showed them the jatropha plant which is believed to be a potential energy resource for biodiesel however it also has some limitations as it decreases the fertility of the land in which it is planted he added the members had a made the most of the nature trail by enriching their knowledge about local biodiversity i had never seen so many types of plants and flowers before and i enjoyed a lot today i will go back home and plant a lot of saplings in my garden said eightyearold samiksha dhandhania