The nursery will be inaugurated by Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday. (Photo: Abhinav Saha) The nursery will be inaugurated by Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday. (Photo: Abhinav Saha) A yellow-footed green pigeon flies over a tree near Sunderwala Mahal, a few metres away is the Lotus pond, and a walk past the garden pavilion is a bed of roses that opens up into the Lakkarwala Burj. Touted as Delhi’s Central Park, the Sunder Nursery in Nizamuddin area with its lesser-known monuments, and flora and fauna, has been given a major facelift by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC). On Wednesday, it will be inaugurated by Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu, and will be open to public Thursday. Spread over 90 acres, it houses the first arboretum (botanical garden of trees), a bonsai house, and is home to 80 species of birds, 36 butterfly species and 280 native trees. The nursery came up during the British rule, and in 1950 a renowned botanist gifted a bonsai collection to the nursery. AKTC has built a storage facility to preserve the collection. “The major challenge was the sheer scale of the project, which is multi-disciplinary in nature. We had to document every tree, every bird here, restore the monuments which were in an abysmal state, hire artisans from Uzbekistan to train karigars in making tiles, and landscaping,” said Ratish Nanda, project director, AKTC. The landscaping has been done by landscape architect M Shaheer. In 2007, AKTC signed an MoU with the Central Public Works Department (CPWD), Archaelogical Survey of India (ASI) and the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC). A walk through the massive heritage garden — dotted with flower beds, raised sandstone pathways and marble fountains — takes one to the six monuments that were given World Heritage designation by UNESCO in 2016. The Lakkarwala Burj, Sunder Burj, Sunderwala Mahal, Mirza Muzaffar Hussain’s Tomb, Chitra Batashewala and an unknown Mughal Tomb fall under this category. Although, little is know about who built them. “In the last decade, we’ve removed truckloads of construction rubble, created a ridge like structure and also planted 20,000 saplings. In my opinion, 10,000-15,000 people have been involved in this project since 2007,” said Nanda. It was through these monuments that the 16th century Grand Trunk Road once passed. A portion of the boundary wall of Mughal-era Azimganj Serai also falls in the area. On the relevance of the heritage garden, Nanda said, “It’s a green space of urban scale, and lungs for the local area.” For all the latest Delhi News, download Indian Express App © IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd

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