Scenic Sunder Nursery in city to debut as a heritage park

New Delhi: Nestled amidst the city’s din and adjacent to Humayun’s Tomb lies a magnificent 90-acre landscape — Sunder Nursery. Get ready to be transported to the Mughal Era as you enter this scenic park. This urban oasis has become a city park with heritage, ecological, and nursery zones.

Sunder Nursery is to be inaugurated by the vice-president in the presence of His Highness the Aga Khan on Wednesday. The grand central vista of the Sunder Nursery, which is 550 meters long, comprises a water garden with monolithic lotus fountains and flowerbeds bound by sandstone flowerbeds – reminiscent of Mughal landscapes of the 16th century or even the Mughal gardens of Rashtrapati Bhavan. The central vista connects the entrance zone of the Humayun’s Tomb World Heritage Site with the 16th century Azimganj Serai to the North through Sunder Nursery.

The Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) in partnership with CPWD took up the revival of Sunder Nursery in 2007. Most of the land was hidden beneath tonnes of debris. The work of landscaping the nursery as well as restoration of 13 monuments was then taken up. At present, it houses the largest collection of tree species found in the national capital, including some rare ones.

AKTC has built similar parks in Kabul, Cairo, Chantilly (France), and Edmonton (Canada). In 2016, Unesco extended the World Heritage designation to 12 structures conserved by AKTC, including six standing within the Sunder Nursery.

Sunder Nursery, having served as a plant nursery for the British, now serves as Delhi’s first arboretum with almost 300 tree species, the largest number in any of Delhi’s parks. A contiguous stretch of dense green cover across the park goes on to the adjoining National Zoological Park and the Batashewala Complex, providing a habitat for the national bird, peacock.

Over the last decade, hundreds of truckloads of construction rubble were removed and 20,000 saplings planted, thereby drawing 80 species of birds to the site. Sixty species of butterflies have made the park their home. A specially built facility allows the display of Sunder Nursery’s bonsai collection of over 400 plants. A 20-acre micro-habitat zone showcases plants of the ridge, riverine, and marshy landscapes in the park. A sunken amphitheatre has been created to hold cultural evenings and festivals celebrating musical traditions.

Following a 2007 memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Central Public Works Department (CPWD), the Archaeological Survey of India, and the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC), the AKTC commenced conservation and landscape works at Sunder Nursery. The nursery would eventually become a 90-acre (36 hectare) city park with distinct heritage, ecological and nursery zones.