As you leave behind the hustle and bustle of Vasant Vihar’s D Block market, the traffic-choked Poorvi Marg leads you to a dead end. It is at this point that a nature path invites you to the Aravalli Biodiversity Park — a recreated tropical forest spread over nearly 400 acres, bang in the heart of south Delhi.

The area, a part of the Aravalli ridge that was almost a wasteland a decade ago, is being slowly and carefully turned into a tropical forest by the scientists of the Centre for Environmental Management of Degraded Ecosystems (CEMDE), Delhi University, and the Delhi Development Authority (DDA).

It was in 2003 that the DDA took over the area and roped in the CEMDE. Planting of different plant species began in 2005 and today a large part of the area is covered with thick vegetation and hundreds of species of flora and fauna.

The DDA doesn’t encourage too many visitors at the park but it is developing a special visitors’ zone spread over 70 acres. This zone is being developed in the part of the park that is next to Vasant Kunj.