Park Street

On entering Udaan Biodiversity Park,the first area one notes is the cheerful-looking children's play area,with a jungle gym,slides,swings,et al.

On entering Udaan Biodiversity Park,the first area one notes is the cheerful-looking children’s play area,with a jungle gym,slides,swings,et al. On the opposite side of the entrance is a beautiful,calming waterfall. Go further in,and there are passages and groves with lush,sweet-smelling plants and trees dotting the walking track. Large canopies provide the perfect spot to stand and look at the plants and birds or just to sit back and relax. It is hard to imagine that the park,recently opened on September 21,used to be a barren piece of land just two years ago.

Since then,the land was surveyed,plotted out and acquired on lease from the PMC. Six months of continuous work and Rs 50 lakhs later,the barren stretch of land is now a 2-acre biodiversity park right in the middle of a busy residential area in Viman Nagar. Located adjacent to Lunkad Amazon near the Symbiosis campus in Viman Nagar,the park is the latest addition to the city’s much lauded green spaces.

It features several plants and trees indigenous to Maharashtra. While some of them have medicinal uses,others are either fruit or flower bearing. Each species is marked with a sign that details its name,its background and its uses in english and Marathi. Udaan is not just a regular park. Of course it has a walking track and it has a play area for children. But its main purpose is education; people should be surrounded by plants that are indigenous to Maharashtra. We should be aware of these plants and their uses. The development of this park was an eye-opener for me too,when I saw how many species there were and how they were all different, says Ganesh Natarajan,CEO and vice chairman of Zensar Technology,the company that is responsible for the development and maintenance of the park as a part of their CSR initiatives.

Udaan also features a pond with various species of fish,right in the centre of the park. However,apart from the waterfall,the pond and the children’s area,the original landscape of the area doesn’t seem to have been changed too much. We have tried to keep the land in its original form. Apart from levelling the ground and planting trees,nothing has been changed. Even the boulders that were removed during the leveling have been used as ornaments in the waterfall and pond and I other sections of the park. The main aim behind the park was to bring a bit of nature into the city, says Natarajan.

Entry to the park is free of charge and open to everyone. The park is open to visitors from 9 am to 1 pm and 4 pm to 8 pm,every day. The park supervisors also hope to start lectures and educational walks and tours around the park soon,in order to increase awareness about the kinds of plants in the state.

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Viman Nagar