Sanjay Gandhi National Park
The "karvi" shrub, as it is locally called in the Marathi language, sometimes also spelled as "karvy" in English, only blooms once in eight years in a mass flowering covering the forest floor in a lavender blush. It grows in abundance in the Western Ghats hills near Mumbai including throughout the Sanjay Gandhi National Park as in other parts of its natural range. In Sanjay Gandhi National Park its latest blooming took place in 2008, and it is scheduled to bloom here again in 2016. Termed by nature enthusiasts as 'nature's miracle' its maximum bloom can be seen on some of the inner paths and trails that lie undisturbed in the park. It survives best on the vast sloping expanses of the hillsides, with the Kanheri caves area of the park being one of the best places to observe large areas of blooms.
Sanjay Gandhi
Sanjay Gandhi married Maneka Anand, who was 10 years his junior, in New Delhi in October 1974. Their son, Varun Gandhi, was born shortly before Sanjay's death. Maneka and Varun Gandhi represent the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Lok Sabha.