Delhi: Green space vanishes as squatters park themselves

NEW DELHI: The last green oasis in the concrete jungle of Nehru Place is under siege. After one homeless family rooted itself at the park on Lala Lajpat Rai Marg around a year ago, it is now home to almost 150 people.
When TOI visited the area, it found that the park’s metal fencing is missing at many spots, and the gardeners were relying on spiked bushes to deter interlopers.


“Drug addicts come here at night and steal the metallic grill,” a security guard said.

Kabita Das, a representative of Nehru Place Greens, the NGO that has been protecting this urban sanctuary for two decades, is understandably dismayed. “After the park’s revamp in 2002-03, the area around was transferred to the municipal corporation while the park remained with DDA. Today, none of these agencies are willing to step in,” she said. “The street along the park boundary has turned into a basti, and this is beginning to tell on the well being of the green space.”

Encroachments around the park in Nehru Place

As the security guard added, the area now even adds to the pollution. Dry tree branches lie in heaps for use by the community as firewood. “We have also reported some instances of garbage burning, but the problem persists,” he said. And though Delhi claims to be free of open defecation, a blatant challenge to this affirmation exists right in the middle of this commercial hub.

Das surveyed and trash-filled space along the road and recollected how the same had been beautified with planters and flower beds just last winter.

“Most of those who live here are ragpickers and use the space as a sorting area,” Das said. “We understand that they need a place to live, but this is not it.”

Nehru Place Greens spends up to Rs 5,000 every month on the upkeep of the park, but all that money is going down the drain. Zile Singh pointed out that a broken Delhi Jal Board pipe nearby is the source of vital water for the park colonists. “We have written several letters to DJB, but it claims it is unable to locate the fault point,” Singh said.

South Delhi Municipal Corporation officials argued that rehabilitation of homeless is the prerogative of Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) and the civic body has no power to remove the encroachers. Delhi government has set up 253 shelters across the city to accommodate 15,774 homeless people. A DUSIC survey put the homeless in the city at 16,000 in 2014, though NGOs estimate the number could be closer to a lakh.