Lalbagh just needs more greenery. There should be much more shrubbery and tree cover, with the herb layer and ground cover allowed to grow. The garden has enough walkways, and more benches could be provided if need be.
It sees so much footfall these days after the Covid lockdowns, especially on the weekends, that it is sad to see the people going out being as ignorant about greenery and biodiversity, as when they came in. Being a declared botanical garden, it should be an educational hub, with the people not only learning about the trees and plants, but also about other biodiversity aspects as well.
The bird life of lalbagh has seen a tremendous drop in populations over the last three decades by around 80-90 percent. Migratory Gargany ducks would come in hundreds with peak numbers in the region of some 1600 birds in the past, but are totally absent today. Coppersmith Barbets would be crossing over a hundred birds during peak season, while one will be lucky to see even a couple of birds now. At one time during British rule, the garden had over 3200 documented species of plants. But how many do we have there today?
Lalbagh as an enclosed greenspace within the city needs to be an urban forest, with a myriad of life forms finding a home there. It needs to be an educational space where a school student too could go and experience biodiversity.
Lalbagh needs a proper long-term management orientation, plot by plot. We can no longer make deweeding and cutting the most significant management operations, day after day, year after year. One needs to see active propagation, replanting, fertilizing and controlled plant protection measures there. We need proper documentation of both the past management activities plot by plot over the years, as well as a management plan for the future with the priorities and plan for each plot written and put out. Management activities there should not become the ad-hoc whims and fancies of the hierarchy and the committees there. Even a sister department, the Forest Department, had a tradition of making proper working management plan documents for ages.
Lalbagh cannot be and should not be just visualised as a mere Victorian-era zoo for plants. It needs to be an urban biodiversity refuge with experiential and educational roles. We require rethinking beyond a waddling path for disinterested, ignorant, indifferent groups of people out for a chat on Sunday morning. We desperately require a new vision for Lalbagh.
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The abridged edited version in Deccan Herald: https://www.deccanherald.com/specials/point-blank/make-lalbagh-an-educational-hub-1167943.html
= in good faith, krishnamb.
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