Insufficient water supply hits city’s bio-diversity park

Gurgaon: The bio-diver sity park in the Aravili forest may be home to millions of trees but the ambitious project is facing an acute shortage of water and most planed trees have wilted.

The organizations working in the bio-diversity park claim that the tube wells in the area are insufficient to fulfill the water demand of the thousands of trees planted in the forest.

Madan Mohan, president of an NGO which recently planted more than 5,000 trees in the park told TOI that the problems would be aggravated in the coming summers as the water shortage problem is set to get moreacute.

“The rocky terrain and the lack of water supply have become a major challenge for the NGOs and the organizations working in the park. We are trying our best to ensure adequate water supply for the trees but I must confess it’s a tough task, “he said.

According to the MCG officials, the park previously had just one borewell which failed to fulfill the water requirements; later, the department tried digging two more borewells out of which only one is functional.

“Several agencies approached the MCG to come up with a solution for the water shortage. We dug two more borewells, but unfortunately the depleting water table meant that only one borewell could be successful. The park still requires more such borewells, “said a senior MCG official. Environmentalists
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Who have been working on different projects in the park said that termite is also one of the major problems the park is facing which is also a by-product of water supply shortage in bio-diversity Park.

Vivak Kamboj, founder of Haryali, an NCR based NGO who recently transplanted many trees to the bio-diversity park said that if the trees are supplied with water regularly, the termites would not have appeared. “Termites can be very harmful for plants and they need to be watered regularly to solve the problem, apart from using pesticide.
Many transplanted trees died because of termite, “he said.

The NGOs claim that the officials too left the planted saplings to the mercy of intermittent showers, which are insufficient for their survival. Meanwhile, other organizations are working out ways to save the remaining trees and combat the situation.

Sanjay Kaushik, president of the NGO uthaan said, “We are seeking support from the treated water from different sewage treatment plants to that we can save the trees. The concept is presently functional in other parts of the city; like the green belt on Sohna Road is supplied treated waster.”

A separate Gurgaon bio-diversity park management society was formed under the fromer municipal commissioner. The MCG commissioner was assigned the post of the chairperson and the deputy commissioner, Gurgaon, the vice president of the executive committee. The main purpose of the executive committee was to look after the flora and fauna in the bio-diversity park.