Nek Chand, creator of world famous Rock Garden, dies

Nek Chand (left) along with his wife cutting cake to celebrate his 90th birthday at the Rock Garden in Chandigarh on Monday, December 15 2014. (Photo by Sahil Walia)

Nek Chand, the creator of the iconic Rock Garden in Chandigarh passed away late last night at PGIMER after a prolonged illness. He was 90. Nek Chand’s body would be kept at the Rock Garden today for the public to pay tributes.

[related-post]

Born in Shakargarh, now in Pakistan, Nek Chand’s family settled in Punjab after partition. He started working for the Punjab public works department as a roads inspector in 1951. It was the time when Le Corbusier was designing Chandigarh.

In Pictures: Iconic Rock Garden creator and Padma Shree awardee Nek Chand dies at 90

Nek Chand started work on the Rock Garden in the early 1960s. He cleared a forest patch near Sukhna Lake and sculpted some figures from the discarded material. As he continued toiling for years, his work gradually spread over several acres and comprised of hundreds of sculptures. The Administration threatened demolition when the work was discovered for having violated laws as no permission was sought before undertaking the task.

Students from remote areas of Kashmir look at the creation of Nek Chand during educational cum motivational tour ‘Firdaus Watan’ under operation Sadbhavana, at Rock Garden in Chandigarh (Express photo by Sumit Malhotra)

However, the city residents stood by him and the now world famous Rock Garden was formally inaugurated on January 24, 1976. Over the decades, it spread in over 25 acres in three phases with Nek Chand still taking a keen interest in its development. He could be seen regularly visiting officials of the Administration asking for more work to be undertaken at the Rock Garden. His 90th birthday was celebrated by the UT Administration in December last year.

This iconic creation of Nek Chand is on the itinerary of every tourist, domestic or international and is visited by hundreds of people everyday. Nek Chand’s creations can be seen taking a pride of place at several places in the city.