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There's good news for the capital on the World Environment Day. At a time when city's green cover is battling infrastructure expansion, Delhi is likely to get more green lungs. In a proposal aimed at reviving the bio-heritage of the city, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) is planning to set up four bio-diversity parks, including one in the Northern Ridge. Covering a large area of land, these parks will be combined with existing heritage sites.
The four biodiversity parks shall be established at the Northern Ridge, Yamuna riverfront, Neela Hauz and Tilpath Valley near Asola wildlife sanctuary.
According to the DDA spokesperson Neemo Dhar, "A proposal has been made for four bio-diversity parks, which are expected to revive the old eco-systems of the city and contain pollution levels."
As per sources, as of now all the parks are in the stage of planning and the actual work is likely to start off somewhere around the end of this year. In this project, Delhi University's botany department will help DDA.
The two largest ones are most likely to be the Northern Ridge park spread over 87 hectares and the one on the Yamuna riverfront. The site for the riverfront will see a body of interlinked pockets of bio-diversity parks on both sides of the river. DDA's first bio-diversity park, the Yamuna Bio-diversity Park, was built two years back over a land of 457 hectares.
Plans for the park in the Northern Ridge include reviving he water harvesting sites in the region, along with identifying the ecozones and green habitats available. DDA also wants to link the seven identified heritage structures in this area, in the form of walkways. These include two guard houses, a flag staff tower that's a signal monument dating back to 1857, several 14th Century structures like Chauburja mosque and Pir-Ghaib, a British era Mutiny memorial and the third century BC Ashoka Pillar. According to the sources, these walkways will serve the purpose of both nature and heritage trails.
The Tilpath Valley bio-diversity park will be established with the aim to revive and restore springs, as it's a major catchment area and a ground water recharging zone. It is also planned to develop grasslands here to protect the zone. The plan here is to develop the park along with the sanctuary into a forest ecosystem having hilltops, slope and valley forest characteristics of the Aravallis. A nature trail along the periphery with a few walkways that cut across these formations will also be developed.
The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) is also planning to create a green space in the Neela Hauz area covering over 5 acres of land. The land will later be integrated with the Sanjay Van and made into a reserve forest land. Here, the woodlands with nature trails will be developed near human settlements for recreational purposes, claims the DDA.
According to the sources, encroachments, which are present at the moment, will be removed soon. The Times of India
June 5, 2009
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