The sculpture stands mutilated on a bed of rocks. A rusty old iron rod, once artistically covered with broken pieces of bangles to form its leg, lies exposed. A little further, a complete wall made of carefully picked pebbles, has fallen. At the Rock Garden, the rot is showing.The last 27 years — the Rock Garden was created in 1976 — have taken their toll. Lack of will to repair the damage as and when it occurs is slowly, but surely, pushing Creator-Director Nek Chand’s baby to where it came from: waste.It’s not as if the Rock Garden Society, responsible for the upkeep of the one-man wonder which put the city on the world map, does not have the money to keep away the decay. Chand says the society has Rs 2 crore in its kitty but the money isn’t being used for repair work. The big hurdle: procedural delays.‘‘We have been planning the repair work for the last two years, but there has been no headway,’’ says an employee at the Rock Garden blaming red-tape. ‘‘Every time the Union Territory Engineering Department is approached with the issue, it sets out to invite tenders. The process is lengthy and time-consuming,’’ he adds. ‘‘Some parts of the garden are so fragile that they need immediate repair.’’Chand says they have about 25 to 30 caretakers, but they’re not enough to keep an eye on every visitor, several of whom resort to vandalism and have broken a number of artifacts. The evidence is there to see. Graffiti scribbled by lovelorn couples on walls made from precious waste, families scrambling up to the artifacts, children hopping onto them to pose for pictures, curious tourists feeling and touching the plugs and chips on the walls. And outside, more visitors waiting their turn to get in to enjoy and do their bit.
