Meet the organised citizens' group that is determined to keep Gurgaon green

I Am Gurgaon has restored the banks of Wazirabad drain into a green track - a far cry from the garbage dump it used to be

As a watery Delhi sun struggles against the smoggy skyscraper skyline of Gurugram, a group of residents gathers at Aravali Biodiversity Park. Their NGO, I Am Gurgaon, has developed green zones throughout the city, which serve not only as its lungs but also as alternative transportation corridors and recreational spaces. Corporates all, they had no experience in forestry or mobilising civic action when they started in 2009. Yet experts recognise the Aravali Biodiversity Park (ABDP) as a young but biodiverse forest and the country’s largest nursery of the native Aravali flora.

Today, ABDP (and millions of CSR funds spent on it) stands to be destroyed as the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority and the National Highways Authority of India plan to construct a six-lane highway through it.

However, there’s an unprecedented civil support for I Am Gurgaon’s protest against the proposed highway. “We’ve watched ABDP grow into a massive carbon sink, groundwater recharger and microclimate stabiliser,” says Latika Thukral, co-founder of I Am Gurgaon. “It has helped many of us to develop a relationship with nature and we won’t allow it to be destroyed by a highway.”

While ABDP faces an uncertain future, it is a fine example of what ordinary citizens can achieve. In 2009-10, Thukral and co-founders Swanzal Kak and Ambika Agarwal convinced the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram to let them take over a disused 380-acre quarry on the Delhi-Gurugram border. Under the guidance of ecologist Vijay Dhasmana, they convinced 15,000 students, 20,000 volunteers and over 70 corporates to help clean it up and populate it with native trees.

Today, ABDP is a verdant home for over 180 bird species and mammals like the nilgai, civet cat, jungle cat, jackal, mongoose and hare.

“Planting only native flora is an ecologically sound practice and makes ours an easily replicable model,” says Thukral. These require minimal maintenance and encourage the area’s original biodiversity to return, she adds.

Additionally, I Am Gurgaon has restored the banks of Wazirabad drain in Gurugram into a green walking/cycling track — a far cry from the garbage dump/defecation area it used to be. The NGO has similar plans for the Badshahpur drain. “We aim to create clean, green spaces across Gurugram and eventually connect them through corridors,” Thukral says. Not only will they absorb pollutants, but also serve as safe conduits for pedestrians and cyclists, she adds.

Vijay Dhasmana, chief ecologist and consultant for the NGO, puts their work in perspective: “The development of Gurugram turned a wild space into a concrete jungle — the time has come to re-wild some of it.”

Investments into each of these projects have run into crores (ABDP costs about Rs 4 million annually to maintain), but I Am Gurgaon has found no dearth of corporate donors. “Watching this forest come to life has been rewarding for many of our donors,” Dhasmana says. It also helps that I Am Gurgaon is tightly run, with almost all the donation funds going into projects. “Donors often wonder how we have such low admin costs,” laughs Thukral. “We’d rather keep our 100-strong gardeners and support staff happy than invest in an office.”

Meanwhile, efforts to stop the construction of the highway through ABDP are gathering force. Almost 4,000 students from schools across Gurugram gathered on Children’s Day this year to express their love for the park and oppose its proposed destruction. The fate of one of Gurugram’s most successful civic initiatives might lie in balance but one thing is clear: I Am Gurgaon shows what a determined group of citizens can do for making their own neighbourhood a better place, and it’s a model worth emulating.

Read more, volunteer or connect with I Am Gurgaon on iamgurgaon.org and their Facebook page. Check out Aravali Biodiversity Park on Tripadvisor and Facebook