Sultanpur National Park up for revamp, infra upgrade

Sultanpur National Park, located around 15 km from the city, is up for a revamp as part of the Swachh Parks Scheme. The wildlife department will soon install benches, colour segregated dustbins, signages and walkways for visitors.

Officials said the work is in progress and will be completed before the park’s post monsoon opening. As many as 225 parks in the city will get a makeover under the Swachh Parks’ Scheme that started from June 1. All popular forest sanctuaries, reserved forest areas, parks and animal welfare establishments will be covered under this initiative. The scheme is part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan and aims to inculcate good sanitation and hygiene practices among visitors and the maintenance staff of forest sanctuaries.

“We are planning measures to improve the infrastructure and cleanliness of the park. We will be putting up more signboards and information boards. Also, the boundary walls will be repaired before monsoon,” said RS Bhatia, divisional forest officer (wildlife), Gurgaon.

Under the Swachh Park scheme, the Sultanpur National Park will be rated on infrastructure by the state government. The park will soon have bio degradable waste processing unit that will further help in keeping the environment clean, officials claimed.

The watch towers will be repaired and proper seating arrangements will be made in the park to cater to more visitors. Gender segregated, disabled friendly toilets will be set up in the park soon. The maintenance of the park will be closely monitored by central government agencies.

“We have already asked our representative to conduct a weekly inspection and carry out cleaning activities in the area,” Bhatia said.

Officials also appealed to people to not carry polythene bags, games/sports equipment and food items to the national park. “These things, especially polythene bags, are often left behind by visitors and disturbs the natural habitat of birds,” Bhatia said.

Also, the forest department is planning to build pathways inside the park. “We will put more signages for visitors explaining the birds’ habitat, food habits and characters,” the wildlife officer said.

Information about shrubs and trees will be provided to visitors.

Approximately 20,000 birds belonging to over 200 species come to Sultanpur National Park every year. While some of them are resident species, nearly 100 are migratory species and come from Russia, Europe and Afghanistan.