For three days last month, at the insistence of Indian President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam the Rashtrapati Bhavan's Mughal Gardens were opened specially for the physically and mentally challenged.

The message was simple. Staying away from the political limelight out of respect for the Indian Election Commission's model code of conduct ahead of the general election, the president instead decided to add new color to the Mughal Gardens.

Visiting the Mughal Gardens was a rare experience for these special visitors. "It was a nice feeling to enjoy the beauty spread around, in a quiet atmosphere, without being pushed or jostled around," said one physically handicapped visitor.

During the month the gardens were open to the public (Feb. 27 to March 29), at least 202,000 people were recorded to have visited the gardens, sources said.

With security concerns that kept visitors away last year having largely marginalized because of the positive turn in Indo-Pakistan diplomacy, this year a large number of foreigners also visited the gardens.

Herbal gardens, added at Kalam's initiative, have a special section for the visually challenged to which only these visitors have access. "This phase of herbal gardens has scripts written in Braille to enable these visitors to learn about the various flowers and plants they'd be sensing," sources said.

The part of the herb garden to which they had access proved a great attraction for ordinary visitors too. They were stunned by the immense potential of these medicinal plants - the "brahmi" plant, for example, which enhances mental alertness, and the "sadabahar", which can help heal Hodgkin's disease and lymphosarcoma.

Inaugurated last year in October by Kalam, the primary purpose of the herb garden, which is being developed in several phases, is to create awareness about rare and endangered medicinal plants. Even the roughly 100 varieties of herbal plants in this bio-diversity park are only a small percentage of the huge variety India calls its own.

"The primary purpose is educational, enabling children, students, farmers and scientists to come here and study what kind of herbal plants have been growing," press secretary to the president S.M. Khan told Arab News.

"The president is also keenly interested in making the world aware of the immense potential of herbal products from India. This should contribute to increasing the market of Indian herbal products abroad," Khan said.

The Mughal Gardens are spread over 15 acres, four of them devoted to growing rare and endangered plants.

Designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and completed in 1929, the Mughal Gardens are a blend of Western, Mughal and Indian styles. Inspired by beautiful gardens of Jammu and Kashmir, the Taj Mahal and Indian miniature paintings, Lutyens laid the gardens out in an Italian style.

The 310 varieties of flowers, a wondrous maze of colors and fragrance, are not limited to only Indian flowers either. Amidst the 250 varieties of roses, 60 kinds of bougainvillea, viscera, teptosyne, sweet william, oxalis, this year the great hit for the visitors was ranunculus, a changing red and orange flower from Holland, sources said.

Kalam's touch can also be felt at the Mughal Gardens in the recent addition of several varieties of fragrant roses.