HYDERABAD: Does Hyderabad have enough lung space? According to figures available with the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), the number of parks in the city has grown by an additional 400 since 2014. However, while the quantity — or the number of parks — has been growing, quality of these parks has taken a beating.
An ambitious idea was proposed in 2016, where 80 parks within the GHMC limits were adopted by various senior government officials to ensure they are maintained, beautified and developed in a better way. However, when The Sunday Standard visited these parks, it was found that not much has changed on the ground for most of these parks.
For instance, take the case of Indira Park. It was adopted by GHMC Commissioner B Janardhan Reddy. However, the issues here are aplenty — the scrap metal sculptures are rusting and are unattended to; stray dogs roam around the park; and patches of the park are ill-maintained. Similar situation prevails at Jalagam Vengal Rao park adopted by Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board MD Dana Kishore. The toilets are filthy, so is the pond at the centre of the park and the canteen inside the facility is in a poor state.
At a much worse state is the Chacha Nehru park that was adopted by Deputy Mayor Baba Fasiuddin. The pond is covered with garbage and moss; the bund surrounding the pond is crumbling and vegetation waste is dumped at one corner of the park that has poor parking facility. In almost all these parks, the walking tracks and greenery around it are well maintained. It’s the other areas that are problematic. Also, no value addition has been done at most of these parks for visitors. Facilities like open gyms are available only in a handful of parks in the city.
Policy needed
The Telangana government is busy promoting Hyderabad as a global city in the making.
The city is projected as a great destination with strong social infrastructure for companies to establish their base and a cosmopolitan crowd to live. However, while the archetypal cities like New York, Edmonton or Gold Coast, the have guidelines on how parks can be made more accessible, features to be included depending on their size and plant species to be grown, Hyderabad does not have design guidelines for development of parks.
“Talks on development of parks in Hyderabad are mere lip-service,” says Foundation for Futuristic Cities president Karuna Gopal. “Unlike this, in countries like USA, parks are developed with environment, ecology, equity and health in mind. To have a policy on urban parks is not a rocket science, it just needs the government’s will. Smart planning for a city would mean the parks being looked through the Social Return on Investment perspective. This includes various social benefits like bettering health of the people and providing space for recreation.”
Various cities in the world calculate SROI for parks. The SROI report on parks by Edinburgh, Scotland, found that for every £1 invested in Edinburgh’s parks, approximately £12 of benefits are delivered. “The cost benefit ratio varies from 1:7 for a natural park, to 1:17 for a large city-centre park,” said the report.
Number of parks in GHMC limits
Major parks - 17
Theme parks - 17
Biodiversity parks - 10
Colony parks - 786