Here,culture meets nature

Last Thursday,it hosted its second cultural performance in a week,as part of the Jashn-e-Khusrau Festival.

Flanked by Purana Qila and the Batashewala complex on the north,and the Humayun’s Tomb and the Nizammuddin Dargah on the south,Sunder Nursery has a history as illustrious as those of its neighbours.

The British had called it Azim Bagh and it became their garden of experiments.

It lay unused and unseen for decades until the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (KTC) came along,to nurse the gardens back to its grandeur.

“People only know it as a nursery. They don’t see the ecological and cultural heritage that the nursery is home to,” says 29-year-old architect Aftab Jalia,who has been working on the Sunder Nursery Master Plan since 2009.

Spread over 70 acres,housing 150 tree species — 26 rare varieties among them — 62 species of birds,butterflies,34 varieties of bonsai plants,different types of gardens,an amphitheatre and nine tombs from the Mughal era,Sunder Nursery is a place where culture meets nature.

“We have three objectives with the nursery,” says Ratish Nanda,Projects Director-India,AKTC,“to preserve and restore heritage,ecology and culture.”

From the raised platform of Sunderwala Burj,one sees the nursery unfold like a majestic Persian carpet towards the Sunderwala Mahal.

Ornamental in design,the carpet’s layers fall in sandstones with motifs,while a column of water runs through its marbled spine. “We picked up stones left over after the CWG and used them in redesigning this nursery. We call them salvage stones. Most of the amphitheatre is built of these salvage stones,” says Jalia.

In landscape architect Professor Muhammed Shaheer’s layout for Sunder Nursery,every inch of space has a function.

There are delicate Persian carpet gardens,rose gardens at Lakharwala Burj,jungle-like foliage,three kinds of nursery beds with fixed seasonal planting schemes,a peacock sanctuary,bonsai house and nine mounds that comprise the arboretum,recreating the original landscape of Delhi.

Most monuments in the nursery have been restored to their original splendour — fine lattice work restored and façades uplifted using limestone and plaster. The arboretum here houses the original inhabitants of Delhi’s ecology — Kohi,Khadar,Dabar and Bangar species — which have now become extinct.

With an interpretation centre and a garden house,AKTC hopes to sensitise visitors to appreciate the wealth of ecology they get to see at the nursery.

The Humayun’s Tomb complex receives 1 million visitors every year. But Sunder Nursery has been more or less lost in the shadows of the monument.

When it opens its gates to public next year,the heart of Delhi will be greener than before.