Guest Column: Cubbon Park is Bengaluru's natural heritage, should be protected

Akshay Heblikar Bengaluru environmentalist and director of Eco Watch

Lalbagh and Cubbon Park are synonymous with Bengaluru – they are the city’s largest lung spaces and are home to several heritage structures. These gave Bengaluru it’s moniker – The Garden City.

Cubbon Park was named after Sir Mark Cubbon who stayed near State Bank of India, Church Street. While they had infrastructure to build guest houses in the park, Cubbon never encouraged that. Instead, he hosted his guests by erecting temporary tents in the park. That was the degree of his concern for this serene environment.

What’s happening today, however, is extremely disheartening. We can see construction activity happening at the park at most times, when none should happen at all – this is natural heritage and should be protected.

Areas around Cubbon Park are very well-connected. It is not a very difficult task to ban vehicular movement through the park itself. The increased air and noise pollution created by constant vehicular movement has chased several species of fauna out of the park. A bicycle stand can be constructed at the entry points and those who wish to go around the park can hire one.

Coming to the recent survey by Janaagraha, however it is sad to learn that out of the 1,152 parks 21 percent are closed to visitors. If they are closed, what purpose do they serve? In cities abroad, there is no timing in parks. They are open round the clock and do not even have fences. People there are mature enough to behave themselves well in public spaces. Here we can monitor and curb any anti-social activities with the help of CCTV cameras and security guards.