Delhi flood: Newly developed biodiversity park submerged

In March, lieutenant governor VK Saxena hosted international delegates attending the G20 summit-related meetings in the national capital at the newly developed Asita East biodiversity park, built along the Yamuna floodplains.

Only four months later, the entire Biodiversity Park, which had only recently begun to attract visitors, was inundated to nearly the main gates and forced to close to the public. The guards reported that the garden, as well as the area where the diplomats sat for tea and snacks and the vast grasslands where they went cycling, had all been submerged under ten feet of water. Officials added that the floodwaters would make the area marshy and that even after the water recedes, it will take months to restore the soil quality to the point where people can visit it as a tourist attraction.

“The water began to rise on Tuesday evening, and we were told to close the area to visitors. The water has risen significantly since then and has almost reached the gate,” said a guard at the Asita East gates.

Asita East is located on the Yamuna River’s eastern bank. The site is a narrow strip to the north and widens to the south, stretching from the Old Railway Bridge to the ITO Barrage and measuring approximately 197 hectares. Asita East has a 2.5-hectare restored wetland supplementing more than 60 million litres of water. According to Delhi Development Authority (DDA) officials, it has a plantation of 4,000 native trees of the floodplain ecosystem and approximately 3.35 million riverine grasses, which drew 63 species of resident and migratory birds last winter.

Flooding was seen in all six DDA biodiversity parks along the Yamuna floodplains. While these are all restored areas, there will be significant loss of vegetation and recent plantation. These biodiversity parks include Yamuna, Aravalli, Kamla Nehru, Tilpath, Neela Hauz and Tughlaqabad.

HT contacted the LG office about the flooding of biodiversity parks, but no response was received.