Baijal pitches for separate company to manage Delhi's biodiversity parks

Taking a stroll around the Yamuna Biodiversity Park on Saturday, Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal emphasised that the park was a unique urban landscape, contributing towards the preservation of the natural heritage.

Planting a sapling in the Yamuna Biodiversity Park as a tribute to the improved environment and ecology of the area, the LG directed setting up of a separate company under DDA to manage the biodiversity parks in a focused and sustained manner. On the occasion, Baijal said: "Both the Yamuna and the Aravalli Biodiversity Parks have been providing ecological services to the city of Delhi.''

The Lieutenant Governor walked along the trail passing through various functional eco-systems created and nurtured in the park. He visited the medicinal garden, herbal park, butterfly park and appreciated the dedicated efforts of the scientists and their team.

During his interaction with scientists, landscape architects and technical staff in the amphitheatre, he fondly remembered the years when he was at the helm to conceptualise ideas and make developmental efforts for biodiversity parks in Delhi under the guidance and vision of the then Lieutenant Governor Vijay Kapoor.

The exceptional efforts of the team of Prof Babu, a pioneer in ecological restoration of degraded ecosystems along with DDA officials for bringing up the biodiversity parks in their present form highlight the need for up-scaling and replicating the example for other such areas.

"There is an urgent need to revive the lost eco- systems of our pristine River Yamuna," he observed. The LG was accompanied by Udai Pratap Singh, vice-chairman, Delhi Development Authority ,Prof C R Babu, a pioneer in ecological restoration of degraded ecosystems and a noted environmentalist, Dr Faiyaz A Khudsar, Scientist in Charge, Yamuna Biodiversity Park and officers of Lieutenant Governor's Secretariat and Delhi Development Authority