RECLAIMING FORMER QUARRY-LANDSCAPES: ARAVALI BIODIVERSITY PARK Landscape – 02
Divya Chand Master in Urban Studies
POSSIBILITIES Quarrying of stone or lime are capable of causing not just severe visual degradation of landscapes but also dire environmental effects. Original topographies are deeply altered due to removal of vegetation and soil layers along with formation of unnatural slopes. Extraction often causes a change in the physical and chemical composition of the earth-substrate in the region and makes replanting or returning to the previous natural state next to impossible (Correia et al., 1970). It is common for these extractive quarries to be located closer to urban areas, especially in unplanned areas, as that enables lower transport costs for raw materials extracted, which have high-bulk and low unit value, and are useful in construction activities. This further causes risks such as altered surface watercourses, and groundwater contamination, damages to the soil composition and morphology and safety problems related to erosion processes due to the steep slope of quarry fronts (Sasso et al., 2012). In such cases, what happens at the end of their working life is an important sustainability concern. Mineral extraction is in effect a temporary land use which can generally last for (sand and gravel) no more than ten years. (Correia et al., 1970) Around the world, many strategies have been adopted to reclaim former quarries. Natural revegetation/conservation, agriculture, creation of recreational open spaces (for water sports, rock climbing, marinas, caravan-parks), land filling for residential or industrial uses are some common responses. All of these have specific logics depending on their contexts, and varying environmental impacts.
Experiences in the reuse of quarries in the metropolitan or periurban areas are numerous and diversified. The fifth largest park in Paris, Parc des Buttes Chaumont, used to be gypsum quarry that was eventually converted into a green lung during Napoleon III’s reign and redevelopment of the city led by Hausmann, back in the 1860s. In Sweden, the Dalhalla theatre in Rattvik was created in a former limestone quarry, using the formation of slopes to the designer’s benefit. In the periphery of Barcelona, a stone quarry was integrated in an urban renewal project by creating the Migdia Park in 1988. The quarries in Karsdorf in Germany are an example of productive restoration. These have been rehabilitated for the cultivation of vineyards and forests. Such attempts at reclaiming quarries have been categorised as ▪ ▪ ▪
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Ecosystem restoration: nature reserves, natural and/or natural usage areas, Productive recovery: agricultural and forestry Urban recovery: residential reuse or tertiary reuse like offices, accommodation facilities and commercial activities; public and private services; reuse for club facilities: equipped parks, sport, entertaining and cultural activities; Reuses related to valorisation of industrial archaeology: geo-extractive museum, related cultural activities; Reuse for secondary sustainable activities: crafts, industry, service activities equivalent to secondary ones;
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Functional technical recovery: general reuse finalized to alternative energy production, including solar panels, solar plants or wind farms, etc; Reuse for risk prevention: restoration addressed to civil protection for hydraulic risk reduction and watercourses flow improvement (Sasso et al., 2012).
Creation of Biodiversity Parks is a form of ecosystem restoration. These are designated landscapes that harbour wilderness and where ecological assemblages of native species are conserved at various levels of ecological hierarchy. This is done through the creation of a managed ecological system which is self-sustaining and where importance is laid on building a system that supports native biodiversity, structure of ecosystems and both ecological and provisional services offered by these systems. Minimum human intervention is encouraged in biodiversity parks. The aim and priority of a Biodiversity Park is also to prevent local extinction that frequently eliminates a large majority of native species of an area. It is scientifically designed to contain representative flora of the region. Former quarrying sites in urban or peri-urban areas make for good sites for these parks as they contain examples of degradation of drivers that are operating in the region. Through the park principles of ecological restoration are applied to bring about regeneration through ecological succession and combat the homogenization in native ecosystems that threatens the biological uniqueness of local ecosystems (Koul, 2017).
Figure 1: Stone mining in the Aravalis in Haryana (Source: Hindustan Times, 2019)
Figure 2: Walking trail at Aravali Biodiversity Park (Source: act.airalert.in, 2019)
THE ARAVALI BIODIVERSITY PARK
Introduction The Aravali Biodiversity Park (ABDP) is a city forest located in the city of Gurgaon, right next to New Delhi, the national capital of India. Developed by the Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon (MCG) and Iamgurgaon (IAG), a non-profit, citizen movement, until recently, this 380-acre rocky land in the Aravalis hills was mined for quartzite. This site used to have mining pits operating during the 1980s and 1990s, and also acted as a stone crushing zone, resulting in barren hill slopes, a deep water-table, and poor soil cover. The remnant forests on the site were highly degraded and invaded by vilayati keekar, an invasive tree species profuse in and around New Delhi. Community led restoration began in 2010 with a vision to bring back the original forest vegetation of the region. About 200 native plant species were raised from seeds collected from remnant natural forests and vegetated areas. Invasive alien species removed. The Park also maintains a variety of habitats including grasslands and a seasonal pond near an old quarry site. Today it hosts 1,304 species of plants, mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, butterflies and moths. It also boasts of the highest density of snakes in Delhi. Despite this story of success, the park is under constant threat from the forces of urbanisation and development.
Figure 3: Map showing the current delineation of the Aravali biodiversity park (Source: Google Maps, 2020)
Geographical Context National Capital Region (NCR) is a central planning region centred upon the National Capital Territory in India. It encompasses the districts surrounding it, including Gurgaon. The NCR is a rural-urban region, with a population of over 46 million and an urbanization level of 62.6% (Census, 2011). Within the congested megacity lie a wildlife sanctuary, a biodiversity park, a citizens’ forest restoration project and large areas of landscaped parks, all under the label of the ‘Ridge’. The Ridge is one end of the Mewat branch of the Aravali Range that extends through the neighbouring states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi in the Northwest of India. The Aravalis is the oldest mountain range in the country (Sud, 2017). The Aravalis are rich in variety of minerals, including large amounts of quartzite. A few decades back, the Aravali hills were densely forested and rich in wildlife. However, due to excessive felling of trees to meet the increasing demand for fuel, fodder and sporadic growth of industry to meet the construction needs and industrial demand for minerals, the ecosystem of the region has come under severe stress. The unprecedented
deforestation has reportedly resulted into degradation/ decline in the forest cover. It has also affected monsoon rains alarmingly. The entire Aravali range has become ecologically sensitive and critically fragile, at present. In the urban region, the ridge is composed of low hills at a height of 2.5 to 90 meters. It is suggested that the Ridge once covered as much as 15 per cent of the geographical area of the city, but much has been built and encroached upon today (Sinha, 2014). An ambiguous interpretation of the of Aravalis has led to many court battles for the protection of these ecologically fragile hill ranges, grey areas have been consistently exploited to give land away to real estate, particularly in Gurgaon, where this park is located (unprotected by Delhi master plan and yet so close to the city). In 2017, the union environment ministry (MOEFCC) told the national Green Tribunal that the Aravalis across the National capital Region of Delhi can now be defined through their May 1992 notification. The ‘Aravali notification’ extends a protective cover to large swathes of land in NCR and helps strengthen the case of environmentalists fighting court battles. Areas previously classified in government records not as ‘forest’ but gair mumkin pahar (uncultivable hill), gair mumkin rada (foot hills, pastures), gair mumkin behed (ravined foothills), banjar beed (cultivable grassy foothills) and rundh (rocky areas between two hills) will now be treated as Aravalis. The Haryana state government had been claiming the status of such lands in Gurgaon as undecided and leaving them open to real-estate development. The union ministry ordered the NCR state governments to delineate natural conservation zones so as to incorporate the Aravalis and take steps to conserve them.
Urban Context
Figure 5: Map of New Delhi, highlighted are the major green areas and parks of the city. Aravali Biodiversity park at the bottom is right outside the bounds of the capital and falls in the city of Gurgaon, a part of the National Capital Region. (Source: Hindustan Times, 2018)
The Ridge is the most dominating feature of Delhi’s physiography, apart from other physical features like the Yamuna flood plains. It represents an ecosystem with its own distinct biodiversity. The forested spaces of Delhi must be understood as implicated in the socio-political structures of the city (Sud, 2017). With rampant urbanisation, densification, encroachments and development, sentiments have driven calls to ‘save the Ridge’ by citizens in different parts of the city through the years as they fear city is poised to swallow this last refuge of nature within it. These various demands for conservation and protection of the forests have led to the establishment of the aim of maintaining the Ridge in its ‘pristine glory’ in the master plan of the city (DDA, 1990). With an expanding population within city limits and a rapidly densifying urban agglomeration in the surrounding areas, the pressure on land is high and increasing (GNCTD, 2014). Despite this, 20.08 per cent of the total geographical area of the city consists of forests and tree cover while in 1993, this figure stood at merely 1.48 per cent (FSI, 2013). Legally recorded forests (under forest conservation laws) cover 5.73 per cent of the land area, of this around 91 per cent is Reserved Forest area. While planning and policies have somewhat saved the remaining green spaces in Delhi, Gurgaon, for a long time, remained outside any regulatory bounds. Hence, a lot of unplanned construction took place consuming the forests and green areas. This area of the Aravalis remained unbuilt mostly due to the quarrying and stone-crushing that happened in this space. When mining was banned, the real estate developers eyed the land to build more housing and commercial spaces.
Negotiations and interventions Where the park stands today used to be a former mining site for quartzite rock and its orange, gravelly degrade, known as ‘badarpur’, there was hardly any vegetative cover except for some straggling, invasive vilaiti keekar (Prosopis juliflora) (Dhasmana, 2020). The large number of mining activities, operation of stone crushers and deforestation was causing serious environmental degradation in the Aravalis. Fearing a catastrophic ecological fallout, the Ministry of Environment and Forests, issued a notification in 1992, declaring few Aravali Hills of Gurgaon district as “gair mumkin pahar (uncultivable forested hills)”. The ground for change was laid with the 2002 Supreme Court ban on stone crushing in the Aravali hills, (implemented only since 2009). After this, the degraded and was littered with all kinds of waste — construction and development, industrial and domestic waste. Iamgurgaon (IAG), a voluntary group, consisting of middle-class residents who came together in the wake of infrastructural and ecological inadequacies of Gurgaon’s development, sensed early on, that this large, empty wasteland on one edge of Gurgaon was vulnerable to encroachment or to being turned into a dumping ground. In 2009 they proposed to the Municipal Corporation Gurugram (MCG) to convert it into a park. The MCG Commissioner liked the idea and asked IAG to submit drawings to develop the park’s infrastructure. Attractive designs of the boundary wall, pathways, amphitheatre and parking lot were handed over to the Corporation. Soon after, MCG began the civil works under IAG’s supervision, and
the park started taking nascent steps. MCG, IAG, worked with an NGO Uthaan and Haryana Forest Development Corporation (HFDC) to begin planting in this derelict landscape, bereft of any soil cover. Indiscriminate, if well-intentioned, planting began, without sparing enough thought for the character of the land. IAG and Uthaan came up with proposals to engage corporates and citizens in this initiative. They did the first avenue inside the Park in 2010, lined with Brazilian jacarandas, Australian bottlebrush trees and Madagascaran gulmohars. The planting scheme took off on this misguided note, with mostly exotic garden trees for a dry, rocky Aravalis landscape (Dhasmana, 2020).
Figure 6: A view of the Gurugram skyline from the Aravali Biodiversity Park. Photo: Vijay Dhasmana
The members of IAG were very clear that they wanted to grow native plants, so they engaged eco-restoration practitioners, who immediately set about to create a wireframe of ideas, and began to give shape and form to a park that — even in those early years — stood at a defiant distance from the standard definitions of a public ‘garden’ in the city. The vision was to bring in the forests of the Aravalis into the cityscape and to showcase them before they were lost. Haryana is rapidly losing its native species of trees to mining, encroachment, urbanisation and mindless afforestation with the invasive species. Started in 2010, the project was initiated on a small scale by planting a variety of saplings. Soon, over 15,000 school students were roped in along with 20,000 citizens who planted over 1 lakh trees in the area. Over seventy corporates contributed generously to make the area not just an urban garden, but an extensive ecological habitat for diverse species of plants and animals. In the end, the aim was to offer the Gurugram residents a place to breathe, relax and cherish in. With help from The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram, the project was deemed to be a success. Vijay Dhasmana (2018) who is the key ecologist for the project explained, during a guided walk through the park, that it underwent several anticipated administrative and financial obstacles such as mid-progress transfer of the District Commissioners, lack of funds and corrupt vested interests of powerful individuals. He, however, emphasized that the bigger challenge was to overcome a landscape architect’s manicured vision of a garden. They put in concerted efforts to create awareness around the importance of the native Aravali forest and were able to get both the administration and the public on board successfully. The result is a large-scale forest
rewilding project. It was shaped through co-funding by the city’s corporates, public participation through plantation drives, villager’s co-operation by earmarking land for cattle grazing and creating nurseries for native species. It now stands as a celebrated recreational space for the city’s residents, consisting of numerous medicinal value plants, as an attraction for environmentalists and birdwatchers, as a pride for the city’s administration and an environmental rejuvenation zone for the city.
Figure 7: A tree plantation picnic with school children (Source: Iamgurgaon)
Biodiversity and Ecological features In efforts of eco-restoration, all wanton planting stopped. Work began in earnest and plant lists were drawn up. The plan was to introduce a total of 200 forest species found in the northern Aravalis into the park. Unfortunately, most of these plants are not found at any nurseries; even the nurseries of the state forest departments don’t bother to source or grow them. So, this demanded that entire nurseries dedicated to native plants be created from scratch. Corporate support was utilised to build these nurseries in the park. A massive hunt for plants, seeds and cuttings was launched, and over the years, several seed collection trips tracing the whole Aravalis ranges were made during the fruiting seasons. Meanwhile, planting plans were drawn, inspired by the best forests of the northern Aravalis, (Anogeissus pendula), Salai (Boswellia serrata) and Babool (Acacia nilotica). The idea though was not just to turn the park into a woodland, but to also create diverse habitats, including grasslands, conducive to varied life forms. Year on year, the nurseries started adding species that were until then unknown to the city, to the park. Once the park gained popularity as a place for planting, engaging corporates employees, citizens and children, more support started pouring in. A drip irrigation system was set up which greatly reduced water wastage, and aids to recharge prized groundwater. Presently, the park houses over 400 plant species, among which nearly 200 are endangered flora of northern Aravalis.
Figure 8: Map shows the planting initiatives in the first 6 years of the park and lists the corporate support it received. Gurgaon is host to a lot of corporate companies and offices, and these companies are obligated to support community initiatives as part of their ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’. Plantation drives in the park provide an easy template for such firms to direct their funds. (Source- Iamgurgaon)
Animals, such as Neelgais, Jackals, common Palm Civets, Porcupines, Hares, Snakes, Lizards and Skunks, are also thriving in the park. Most animal and bird life depend heavily on insects, and the park attracts all kinds of Butteries, Moths, Beetles, Bugs, Aphids, Ants and Spiders. 182 species of rare birds have been sighted so far and IamGurgaon has now published a Birding guide for enthusiasts coming to the park. .“The park has in recent past has become a breeding ground of the Indian Eagle Owl and the Savanna Nightjar. Many rare migrant species were also reported in last two years, such as Rufous-tailed scrub robin. It has also become a biodiversity hotspot with rare Aravali plant species that Haryana has lost or is in the verge of losing, such as Indian frankincense tree, ghost tree, Bhormal, gurjan,â€? (Dhasmana, 2020). Events to engage the city with this wilderness have been increasing. Periodic nature walks have become hugely popular. There is a programme to involve school children with nature awareness and Corporates find engagement in the Park for team-building or pure volunteering. One can often spot business-teams cleaning up garbage, composting leaf litter or volunteering in the nursery. The park today already requires no additional water or daily maintenance, and is completely self-sustaining, thus preserving precious resources and labour. The park managers aim to continue this effort and hope to register the park as an ecological heritage site, but the challenges are not over yet. Figure 9: Before-after pictures show the transformation of the landscapes through restoration works conducted (Source-Iamgurgaon)
The park today The Iamgurgaon website states the biggest challenges the park faces today as grazing by cattle and herds of goats are let loose on the park by the nearby village, threat of breaching fences, vandalism, breaking of the facilities and theft of the resources. But these are minor problems compared to the sword of uncertainty that still hangs on the park’s future. The park has had to fight several battles to save the park from conversion into a zoo or a crocodile park, or a Singapore style night safari, and, most recently, from a highway cutting through the centre of the park (Dhasmana, 2020).
In a classic example of the constant struggle of economics against nature, the National Highway authority of India declared a project, named Greater Southern Peripheral Expressway Road (GSPR). The initial proposal was to develop a road from Rajokri in Delhi to Gurugram cutting through the Aravali biodiversity park, part of a plan to decongest Delhi. However, the project faced several protests and opposition from citizens and environmentalists, who claimed that the road would rob the city of whatever little green cover is left. The protests forced the government to take a step back on the matter. It was then proposed that instead of taking the road through the park, it could be developed along its boundary and minimise the damage. As per the map shared, just the 16-lane road would occupy 22.5 acre, while the NHAI claimed that the road will occupy only 10 acres. Consequently, construction would occupy more space, and cause encroachments as temporary housing is set up for construction workers. The park would be destroyed (Dhasmana, 2018). A major campaign to save the Aravali Biodiversity Park (ABDP) gained momentum, with protests on ground, petitions and dissent on social media. The newly formed development authority of Gurgaon backed by support from various civil society groups approached the NHAI and got the project stalled. Dhasmana noted how the future of the park rests on the immense support received from the people of Gurgaon. In the last seven years, dozens of corporate firms, more than fifty schools, thousands of children, and citizen from all walks of life have come to plant about 145,000 plants of 200 species in the Park. They have all become stakeholders in the Park’s future.
Figure 10: (Source: Hindustan Times)
Figure 11: Citizens gathered to protest the highways through the park (Source: Hindustan Times, Times of India, The Logical Indian) The campaigns and efforts were partially successful, and the project eventually was put on hold. Recently, months after concerns were raised by environmentalists over the proposed road through the Aravali biodiversity park, builder DLF has proposed to connect the national highway with MG Road via an underpass beneath the park. This would certainly still require major construction works and disrupt the ecology of the park. The park has proven a respite for the city as the deconfinement of Covid19 measures takes place in. The struggle and fight to save the park still go on.
Figure 12: (Source: greenhumour.com)
Conclusion Berger defines ‘drosscaping’ as a sort of scavenging of the regional urbanized surface for interstitial landscape remains, and ‘drosscapes’ as the inevitable wasted landscapes within urban areas. If the Aravali Biodiversity Park, back in 2009, after the halt of mining activities, is considered a wasted space as Berger choses to qualify abandoned or contaminated sites, it is precisely this nature of the site that ensured its openness and saved it from already being consumed for commercial or residential built development. Liminal landscapes, remain at the margins, awaiting a societal desire to inscribe them with value and status, a cultural realm that has none of the attributes of the past or coming state, in themselves just clay and dust (Berger, 2007). This liminal, Terrain Vague was discovered and ascribed an ecological meaning as it fell between the cycles of investment in 2009, just by chance. This in-between period of the landscape provided a threshold, a platform, for liminal cultural phenomena to play out. Morales speaks about these spaces, as mentally exterior in the physical interior of the city, and their negative image as much a critique as a possible alternative. The Aravali Biodiversity park is an example where a possible alternative was envisioned and assigned value to and is now being fought for. The ascription of meaning has transformed it into a valuable city asset. Today ABDP is celebrated and cited as a successful example for similar initiatives across India. It acts as a symbol of clean and fresh air in the changing cityscape serving as the green lungs of the region, mitigating the pollution load of the city. Harbouring the natural heritage of the area, it is utilised
to teach concepts of ecological restoration right on the field and also of many other facets of environment management. It acts as a centre of attraction for the public; and gives scientists an opportunity to engage with them directly through their work instead of through text and lectures (Kaul, 2017). But this ascribed meaning is still not universal, as it does not allow for capital gains for the state or private players, and only an intangible value for residents and users. The ecological value still remains impalpable for many of those in authority, which leads to proposals like the ones Dhasmana speaks about - from a zoo like safari park, to a national highway - quantifiable and profitable land uses. And while the imagination of the intellectual and academic authority has caught up with the ecological meaning of this space, it is still not the default assumption. While the policies, land-use designations, and scientific reports help fight the case for ecological value, it still remains only one side of the dice. Landscape, like a language, is the field of perpetual conflict and compromise between what is established by authority and what the vernacular insists upon preferring (Jackson, 1985). As it is difficult to define authority as a singular body, similarly, the vernacular is a fractured demographic. The rich usually share values of environmental preservation with the managers of the park and are allies of the park in the emergent metropolis. They participate by their proximity to the park, their frequentation and sometimes beyond their investment in participative management committees by constituting and disseminating the social and environmental norms of good practice and the good management of nature in the city on the scale of these
metropolises, as well as thoroughly integrating the park into their experience of the emerging metropolis (Dellier, Guyot, Landy; Gonçalves, 2018). Iamgurgaon, while it represents the citizens of Gurgaon, only represents a certain upper-middle class elite. In the imagination of the park, the “encroachments” are as much a threat as a new highway. For the thousands of Gurgaon’s low-income workers, these encroachments are the only way of securing shelter and housing. As plot after plot gets consumed in new high-rise construction, they get shuffled around the ‘liminal’ spaces of the city. Grazing by the cattle of local villagers is another such threat. Cattle being a source of income and food for the villagers, it is difficult for
them to find grazing lands as their villages rampantly urbanize. In such urban experiences, it is difficult to qualify ecological quality as a priority. With their historical lobbying for the creation of the park or with their mobilisation for the defence of its spatial integrity, the rich can put all their influence into raising the park as a guardrail against urban growth. In this way, they preserve, as a by-product, a landscape and heritage that is part of the desired exclusive urban identity. This urban identity is not entirely inclusive. The ecological fight, in its own way, certainly helps the health of those most vulnerable to the ill-effects of growth but the vulnerable are not the ones fighting it, and don’t always benefit from it.
Figure 13: Gurgaon in 2016, Photo by Sarth Khare
REFERENCES
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