CHENNAI: Chennai may not be a dystopian concrete jungle yet, but an open green space here is increasingly a rarity. To make amends, Greater Chennai Corporation set up six parks in the past 10 years and converted them into exclusive theme-based spaces on topics ranging from mobility to disability, greenery to medicinal plants. Now, the civic body has begun work on an Eco Park on an eight-acre plot in North Chennai’s congested Korukkupet Besides the regular greenery and landscaping, the park will have an artificial pond spread over 1.5 acres and tracks for cyclists and walkers. “Work on the pond is complete. Landscaping, planting of saplings, lighting and water supply will be done within a few months,” said zonal officer of Tondiarpet R Mangalaramasubramanian.For Chennai, where the green cover is going down by 2% every year, such parks have become valued assets. According to WHO, each resident should get at least 9sqm of open space, but in Chennai it is just 0.46sqm.Kavitha Selvaraj, who designed Sensory Park, told TOI that in cities like Chennai that are growing every day, open spaces were a must for mental and physical wellbeing of residents. “In a neighbourhood, there are all kinds of people. Instead of creating generic parks with same facilities, a theme-based park with one particular aspect brings the focus on a particular issue and educates people. And the problem is not lack of space. We just need to identify them and develop them to suit our needs,” she said.The facility in Korukkupet will join the other theme parks that the civic body had inaugurated including the Traffic Park on the Marina, Otteri Herbal Park, Sensory Park at Mandaveli and Kotturpuram Tree Park. Unlike neighbourhood parks that are spread over 5000sqft at most, theme parks are bigger and can cover up to 1 lakh sqft.R Govindaraj, president of Exnora Chennai, said, “A theme park educates people. But their maintenance is cumbersome.”But Lokabi, a resident, said vandalism was an issue. “Such spaces are rare, every body wants to flock there,” he said.The idea of theme-based parks was discussed under the smart city mission when consultants came on board in 2014. “The Traffic Park was created because of road safety clubs of the transport department and the Sensory Park, which has facilities for differently abled people, was conceptualized by non-profit organisation Disability Rights Alliance,” said Srinivasan, executive engineer, parks department.Kavitha, however, said Chennai needed to catch up. Andhra Pradesh is setting up a butterfly park and Bengaluru has a composting park where locals are educated on how to compost household waste. A corporation engineer said more parks, such as a facility for pets, are on the anvil and may be developed.

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