Botanical Garden

Getty Images/Flickr Open

Botanical Gardens

Top choice in Kolkata (Calcutta)


Despite being an awkward journey by public transport, Kolkata’s lovely 109-hectare Botanical Gardens makes for a great place to escape from the city’s frazzling sounds and smells. Founded in 1786, the gardens – home to more than 12,000 plant species – played an important role in cultivating tea bushes smuggled in from China by the British, long before the drink became a household commodity. Today, there’s a cactus house, palm collection, river-overlook and a boating lake with splendid Giant Water Lily pads.

The most touted attraction in the park is the 250-year-old ‘world’s largest banyan tree’. That’s a little misleading – the central trunk rotted away in the 1920s, leaving an array of cross-branches and linked aerial roots that collectively look more like a copse than a single tree. The banyan is a 300m walk from the park’s Bicentenary Gate on buses 55 and 213, or a 1.5km walk from the main gate where minibuses as well as bus 55 terminate after a painfully slow journey from Esplanade via Howrah. Taxis from Shakespeare Sarani charge around ₹200 via the elegant Vidyasagar Setu (you'll have to pay an additional ₹10 as bridge toll fee).


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Kolkata (Calcutta) attractions

1. Alipore Zoo

3.28 MILES

Kolkata’s 16-hectare zoo opened its doors in 1875 as one of British India's showpiece zoological gardens, but has gradually dropped in stature and…

2. Curzon Mansion

3.46 MILES

Directly south of the zoo's entrance, the access road to the National Library loops around the very regal Curzon Mansion, once the colonial viceroy's…

3. National Library

3.51 MILES

Located directly south of the entrance to the zoo is the (private) access road to the National Library, which houses India’s biggest archival collection…

4. Railway Museum

3.52 MILES

Some 500m south of Howrah train station, the open-air Railway Museum has a two-storey station model, several 19th-century steam locomotives and a toy…

5. Banking Museum

3.52 MILES

This professionally presented little museum brings alive the history of Indian banking using paintings, models, seals, weapons and archival materials. A…

6. High Court

3.55 MILES

One of Kolkata’s greatest architectural triumphs, the High Court building was built between 1864 and 1872, loosely modelled on the medieval Cloth Hall in…

7. VM North Gate

3.59 MILES

Day-time entry tickets to the park and Victoria Memorial museum are sold here, but there's no access to the sound and light show.

8. Victoria Memorial

3.61 MILES

The incredible Victoria Memorial is a vast, beautifully proportioned festival of white marble: think US Capitol meets Taj Mahal. Had it been built for a…

  • placement: superzone
  • path: Destinations/POIs/superzone
  • possible size: [970, 250], [970, 90], [728, 90], [1, 1],
  • targeting:
    {
      "url": "india/kolkata-calcutta/attractions/botanical-gardens/a/poi-sig/410826/356356",
      "destination": "Kolkata-(Calcutta)",
      "continent": "Asia",
      "country": "India",
      "city": "Kolkata-(Calcutta)",
      "position": "superzone"
    }