Visit to Bio-diversity park in Gurgaon

The millennium city, Gurgaon is mushrooming with concrete buildings. They are spreading at a fast pace depleting the green areas of the region. Coming from Vasant Kunj, a DDA colony we miss their small parks spread in every block. From my 7th floor apartment I can only see just one park (the jogging track inside is just 0.25km – imagine the size of the park).

Thanks to the Haryana Government and the stress on eco-centric environment birth of a bio-diversity park has happened. Felt so very happy to hear about this and added to the delight is that it is situated so close to my house.

You might not have noticed it as it is not easily seen from the MG Road though it lies right on it. It lies on the left side of MG Road just before the Delhi Border. One can get a better view from the metro.

On 11th Dec 2010, I made a visit to this place along with my friend and his son. It is just under 3 kms from Bristol hotel. There is a lot of work being carried out, a very good sign. We can clearly see a boundary wall and partly laid out cycle track and some mud foot path. At a distance we can see two mandirs and initially planned to go there. Later we decided just to walk on the ridge to enjoy the rocky hilly area.

On the way we saw a number of trees planted by Gurgaon residents on 5th June. They are growing but seem to be slowly progressing. We also encountered a few people watering the grass and the plants, again a welcome sign. Gives a feeling of being cared (the park). We did find some barbed wire fencing. The area is so huge that we can not see the end of the park even from an elevated ground. We saw a huge basin flanked by rocks on one side, imagined a amphitheatre but later was told by the architects (whom we happened to cross) that it will be a water body. They are planning several water bodies in the park.

Suddenly we came across a small shed displaying STD/ISD on the outside!! So advanced? Communication facilities even before the park is developed!. The journey was good and at one place we saw elephant grass growing wildly and beautiful. We were told that they have plans to remove non-aravali species of plants and plant species which are from these parts.

I am very excited and waiting for it to be developed. It will definitely give us a feeling of an eco-sensitive Gurgaon.


Best of luck to the government authorities and hope we can see its completion soon.

The nearest metro station is Guru Dronacharya. Walk towards the Delhi border on MG road for less than a kilometer.

Visit to Hauz Khas

Being a hard core trekker, my feet were itching for some good exercise after the trek to Har Ki Dun in May 2010. Was browsing through the net and found an organization called Delhi Heritage Walks dealing with such walks in Delhi. Though I am not particularly very keen on monuments but did well in my History at School, could remember the various rulers, dates, etc. Thought this will be a good idea to give my feet some exercise at the same time will help brush up my long forgotten History of old Indian dynasties, rulers and architecture.

I booked myself on a walk through the Hauz Khas village, literally translated into an “important water Tank”. It was a Saturday and didn’t want to take my car out so took the Metro to Green Park. This is the closest metro station to visit Hauz Khas. It was getting late for the rendezvous at the deer park gate so hurriedly took an auto and paid Rs25/-. Reached the gate at about 3:25pm and found a very young crowd, all participants in the walk. There were some journalists, architects, photographers, tourists.

We waited for two more of the participants and started the walk at about 3:35pm. The entry is not from the deer park gate but further down the road. Very inconspicuous gate, would have missed the entry but for the guide.

Hauz Khas was initially built as a water reservoir by Allauddin Khilji in the 13th century. The water from this reservoir was used to supply water to the inhabitants of the village. Later the king Ferozeshah Tughlak renovated it, built the madrasa and a beautiful garden. He also built his tomb which has a unique enclosure bounded by stone structures adjoining the tomb. I was surprised at the massive size of the water tank filled with water. We could see some birds near the lake and a fountain in the middle.

There were mosques in the premises. There we could see some very small rooms with a small ventilators, couldn’t figure out what it was. Looks more like meditation sites.

After visiting the garden, the ‘class rooms’ of the madrasa we entered the deer park and visited more of the historical ruins. There were structures called “Kali ghumbaz”, “Tohfa Ghumbaz” and many more. The park was without the deer (I understand they were kept in enclosures) but heavily wooded. It was beautiful to walk through the park. Never knew such a thing existed right in the middle of the city.

After a 1.5 hrs walk a bit tired but felt good and took an e-rick to the metro. Costed me Rs15/-

We were allowed to take pictures and you can see (above) some of them.