Wasteland to nature reserve: Urban biodiversity parks are a bounty for residents, cities

The posh Poorvi Marg runs through Vasant Vihar in South Delhi, with bungalows, residential colonies, prestigious schools, and foreign embassies all along the way. The road finally leads to a green iron gate beyond which lies Aravalli Biodiversity Park.

The gate separates the urban sprawl of the national capital of Delhi from an urban common of a large forest teeming with a variety of flora and fauna. A few metres into the biodiversity park, smelling of fresh leaves and microbe-rich soil, the mercury drops perceptibly. Birds and butterflies abound. Sunrays dapple the ground and play peekaboo through a canopy of trees native to the Aravalli mountain range.

Deep inside the green haven M Shah Hussain sits in his office. An ecologist, he first came here 20 years ago to survey the area to develop a biodiversity park. “Looking at the green cover and forest sprawl now, it is hard to imagine that this portion of the Aravalli was a degraded wasteland pockmarked with abandoned mining pits two decades ago. There were piles of debris [mining waste] everywhere. The invasive plant vilayati kikar (Prosopis juliflora) had taken over the entire landscape,” says Hussain.

Hussain is the scientist-in-charge of Aravalli Biodiversity Park and heads a team that has meticulously restored...

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