Toyota Ecozone is an environmental education initiative by Toyota Kirloskar Motors inside their 400 acre campus at Bidadi, Bangalore. Spread in 25 acres, the ecozone is being developed in the 25 acre derelict land in the campus. The Ecozone houses extensive theme gardens – Wetland Diversity, Climate Change, Underground Ecology, and Pollination Meadows surrounded by a restoration forest of native species. More than hundred local schools take part in Toyota’s green curriculum with its experiential learning.
The project featured below is one part of this large ecological restoration project, which is a timeline park. Walking through this Evolution Timeline Garden one absorbs striking images – the snowflake crystalline form of a single celled bacteria, the spiraling shell of an ammonite, the first appearance of earth’s flowering plants against the massive head of a T-Rex, and then in the final steps of the timeline, the rise of the Himalayas and the emergence of Hominids. These large artworks sprawl over thick granite pillars and soar across the path as steel silhouettes. Parallel to this walkway, the accompanying plants rise up through the garden beds as ancient echoes to the fossil record. Horsetails in a sheet of water, ferns, cycads, auracaria trees, palms and grasses rise up among the paintings and sculptures. The further one explores this walkway the more one is entangled with time, deep time.
