Rehabilitation of Sunder Nursery adds historic, democratic green space

Nizamuddin in Delhi has long been a place of miracles. Legend has it that when Sufi saint Nizamuddin Auliya was building his baoli (step well) on the marshy banks of the Yamuna in 1321, Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq, the ruler in Delhi at the time, banned the sale of oil to him so that no lamps could be lit at the construction site at night. Then one of the saint’s disciples is said to have magically turned water into oil and construction carried on.

Tughlaq was murdered in the space of a year and his dynasty ended within 100 years. However, the spiritual ambience and green space around the Nizamuddin dargah ensured that it became the burial place of choice for legions of kings, princes, poets and courtiers.  

Almost 700 years later, another small miracle seems to be unfolding in the Nizamuddin area. Sunder Nursery, a 90-acre garden that connects Azimganj Sarai — a 16th-century inn now located within the Delhi Zoo — to the entrance of the Humayun’s Tomb, has been beautifully restored by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) and is now open to the public.   

an aerial view of Sunder Nursery with the Sunderwala Burj. Photo: Aga Khan Trust for Culture

When Humayun’s Tomb was named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1997, the government invited the AKTC to repair it. Eventually, the Trust was asked to look at other tombs in the area too. Sunder Nursery, set up by the British in the early 20th century, was to be part of the restoration project. Since it had laid out gardens in Cairo, Kabul, Zanzibar, Mali, Aleppo and Khorog, AKTC was deemed to have the right experience for the job.

Today, Sunder Nursery is a combination of gloriously formal Mughal-style charbagh lawns, water bodies and a biodiversity park that tries to replicate Delhi’s original marshy landscape. Along with the Millennium Park behind Humayun’s Tomb and the Purana Qila, Sunder Nursery forms a nearly 600-acre continuous green space for Delhi. It also covers a large part of the lost city of Dinpanah, the capital of Mughal Emperor Humayun, whose inner citadel was the Purana Qila (Old Fort). Till it was destroyed by Sher Shah, it was considered equal to the legendary cities of Cairo and Baghdad. There’s also a belief that the mythological city of Indraprastha existed here.

Sunderwala Burj before and after restoration. Photo: Aga Khan Trust for Culture

“Sunder Nursery is not just a garden restoration project — it is part of the overall revitalisation of the Nizamuddin area. This strategy has been central to the AKTC’s programmes in Cairo and other sites around the world. This is an inter-sectoral strategy of revitalising decaying neighbourhoods,” says A G K Menon, ex-convener of INTACH, Delhi.

The nursery has a unique ensemble of ruined 16th-century garden tombs that are now World Heritage Sites. These include the Lakkarwala Burj, Sunder Burj, Sunderwala Mahal, Bada Batashewala Tomb, Chotta Batashewala and the Tomb of the Unknown Mughal. They are part of the 29 World Heritage Site monuments located in the Nizamuddin area.

“The biggest challenge of restoration isn’t finding matches for the original building materials,” says Ratish Nanda, CEO of AKTC in India. “Rather, it is documenting the history, archiving, speaking to other experts and doing our research on the significance of the buildings that we want to save.”

Built in 1603, Bada Batashewala Tomb — the tomb of Akbar’s son-in-law Mirza Muzzafar Hussain — stands on a raised platform. Covered with Quranic calligraphy, ornamental plaster medallions and intricate honeycomb patterns, the tomb, only parts of which have survived, is an excellent example of the painstaking repairs carried out by AKTC.  

Photo: Aga Khan Trust for Culture

But it is the biodiversity of Sunder Nursery’s gardens that is truly astonishing. Since the British used the nursery for trees they had transplanted from England, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, it already had 1,800 mature trees of more than 200 species. The 70-member AKTC team, which includes ecologists, botanists, hydraulic engineers and tree specialists, has ensured that these have been preserved, often with sunken gardens built around them. AKTC has planted another 100-odd species and 280 saplings collected from Delhi’s Ridge area, including guava, peelu, drumstick, the herbal marod phali, elephant apple, Indian rosewood, and so on. 

Herbs such as various varieties of tulsi (Indian basil), sweet basil, ashwagandha, ajwain, brahmi, bhringraj, curry leaves, cardamom and mulethi (liquorice) have been planted as well. Each tree is mapped so that tree lovers can locate them online. Twelve historical wells have been de-silted. These and an already existing swimming pool are now being used for rainwater harvesting. A restored 16th-century lotus pond within the enclosed garden of Sunder Burj and Sunderwala Mahal now blooms with purple, pink and yellow lotuses. 

Biodiversity studies conducted in Sunder Nursery in 2012 documented 54 species of resident birds and 24 species of butterflies. Today, the nursery is home to 80 bird species, 36 types of butterflies, as well as 4,200 trees. The marshy rivulets and outer thickets could be a boon for animals (such as deer and hyenas) which often stray into the wilderness around the Delhi Golf Club nearby. It is hoped that the nursery will also help the 500,000 schoolchildren who visit Humayun’s Tomb every year to be more environmentally aware.

“It’s a model of development in a historic district. It’s also a demonstration of public-private partnerships,” says Nanda. “What works well is the mixture of heritage and green space. Today, open spaces are extremely important. Class distinctions are blurred here as people can sit and read, attend performances or walk.” Even though Delhi is considered one of India’s greenest metro cities with a per capita green space of 21.52 sq m/person, not all those green spaces are citizen-friendly. The park is currently open from 9 am till 5 pm, but there are plans to keep it open from sunrise to sunset from October onwards.

As AKTC gets ready to hand Sunder Nursery back to the government in a few years, it continues to work on creating Delhi’s first arboretum. Work is also on to preserve other monuments in the area such as Sabz Burj on the Nizamuddin roundabout and Khan-i-Khana’s tomb nearby. “If anyone has photos of the original ceilings of Sabz Burj from before the 1980s, it’ll help us restore the grandeur of the building,” Nanda says. He mentions the sorry state of a neighbouring monument, the 11th-century Balban’s Palace, which has been overrun by dwellers. 

Nanda is determined not to lose any other priceless architectural heritage of Delhi. And the government seems to feel the same way.