Central Ridge to get an open air Bonsai themed interpretation centre

Delhi's forest department plans a ₹4.82-crore open-air interpretation centre, Vanam Van, to educate on local flora, featuring Bonsai and guided walks.

Delhi’s forest and wildlife department has floated a ₹4.82-crore tender to develop an open-air interpretation centre — called Vanam Van — inside the Central Ridge to educate citizens and students about Delhi’s flora, officials said.

(HT Archive)

According to tender documents accessed by HT, the Bonsai-themed interpretation centre will feature miniature trees and cuttings of over 50 native Aravalli species, alongside a souvenir shop made of bamboo. Proposed under the west forest division, the facility has been planned adjacent to the office of the deputy conservator of forest (west) along the Mandir Road, the document stated.

“The interpretation centre will feature a number of native Aravalli and Delhi species in the Bonsai form and will display species, their characteristics, fun facts and medicinal properties regarding each tree — under an open-air set up,” an official said. Guided walks will also be provided to students and anyone wanting to learn about Delhi’s flora.

Bonsai is an ancient Japanese art of growing and shaping miniature trees in shallow containers.

Officials described the project as the Capital’s first after a plan for a similar facility in Kamla Nehru Ridge failed to take off two years ago.

Meanwhile, experts said that while educating children is a welcome move, the Ridge needs to be kept “as is”.

“We see such Bonsai-themed greenhouses at parks and other public gardens, but the Ridge needs to be left alone. It is a forest and we can easily plan for such a centre on any other forest department land, even at a nursery,” said environmental activist Bhavreen Kandhari.

The tender conditions state that “the contractor shall not construct any permanent structure at the site of work and shall have no right on the land or asset of the Government”.

The move comes amid growing activity and competing visions for the ecologically sensitive Ridge. HT reported on March 22 that the forest department was also planning eight “themed forests” across the Central and Southern Ridge, including Ritu Van, Nakshatra Van, Rashi Van and Panchvati Van, where plantation drives would be carried out according to cultural themes.

On May 9, HT reported that the department has also proposed Miyawaki plantations in parts of the Ridge — plans that have drawn criticism from ecologists and conservationists, who have argued that intensive landscaping and thematic interventions could alter the Ridge’s natural ecology.