New Delhi: To resuscitate Jheel Park near Welcome in east Delhi, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi has decided to involve a green organisation in the revamp of the 30-acre park-cum-lake. The plan to transform it into a biodiversity park and a centre for nature interaction and experience.
With the project having received the MCD commissioner's nod, the civic body is expected to sign an MoU with NGO Green Yatra early next week on maintaining and securing the place for the next three years. Green Yatra had earlier developed Miyawaki forests for MCD and also has experience of developing biodiversity parks in several other cities. "Once the MoU is signed, we expect the green body to take over the site and start work by the beginning of Dec," said a municipal official.
The proposed interventions include a medicinal herbal garden, natural selfie point, children's play area, xerophytic garden, open-air gym, senior citizens' space, a Miyawaki forest, bamboo arboretum, state tree gallery, native flower and fragrance garden and planting of endangered tree species. The activities to be promoted are meditation, walking, reducing, reusing and recycling (3R) and bird watching.
The administration block and the sewer treatment plant located over two acres will continued to be MCD's responsibility.
"Since we have a huge area surrounding the lake, a decision was taken to divide it into portions and add many interesting features which can become part of a biodiversity park while conserving the natural habitat, preserving endangered plants and creating an ecosystem," said an official.
In phase I, plantation work and waterbody restoration will be carried out. "It will begin with soil sampling and soil health analyses by Green Yatra, who will also carry out research on local native tree species already planted there and then develop a portion of land for a Miyawaki dense forest," revealed the official. "Work will be simultaneously carried out for planting secret groves, the state tree gallery, rare and endangered tree species bank. Work will be done to restore the waterbody." The latest technologies would eb employed to monitor, water and care for the plant.
The second phase includes carrying out a special plantation project for developing a medicinal herb garden, native grass plantation, xerophytic garden, pollinator garden, and native flower garden. In the same phase, provisions will be created for a natural selfie point, children's play area, open-air gym, meditation hall, etc. "Given that there are no such facilities in the surrounding localities, people in the neighbouring colonies will benefit once the park is developed," the official said.
Until 2022, the erstwhile East Delhi Municipal Corporation worked on the lake's restoration and constructed a footpath, amphitheatre, administrative block and carried out plantation using funds received under the AMRUT-1 Scheme. The partially completed park was inaugurated in Feb 2022 by Lok Sabha member Manoj Tiwari. Prior to this, in 2012, the east corporation invested Rs 4 crore to revive the lake by filling it with treated water from a nearby drain. The National Environmental Research Institute, Pune, executed the project using the phytorid wastewater treatment technology.
However, due to a lack of funds, progress on the project slowed down, and the partially completed works began to go to seed. Last year,