Delhi govt to set up city’s second bamboo-themed park

A senior forest official said that the “bambusetum” will be spread over an area of around 20,000 square metres

Delhi’s forest and wildlife department is creating a dedicated bamboo park in southwest Delhi’s Galibpur village — the second such park to come up in the national capital after Baansera in southeast Delhi — officials aware of the matter said on Tuesday, adding that over 8,200 bamboo comprising over 100 different species would be grown in the park.

Over 8,200 bamboo comprising over 100 different species would be grown in the park. (HT Archive)

“Bids will be received till the first week of January, after which the project will be allotted to a third party for procurement and delivery of the bamboo saplings. The department will oversee the entire project, including plantation and our goal is to showcase different bamboo varieties and their uses,” the official said, stating a timeline for completion will be determined once the tendering process is complete.

The tender note, a copy of which HT has seen, calls for 8,282 bamboos to be procured and 101 different species to be planted. At least 82 bamboo saplings will be procured from each of the 101 species listed in the tender notice, it said.

India has 136 species of bamboo that are found naturally or grown under the National Bamboo Mission.

The department had in September this year, also floated a tender to procure around 6,200 bamboo for the Baansera park in Sarai Kale Khan — a project being executed by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) along the Yamuna floodplains. The bamboo procured is being planted and shaped in the form of the outline of India’s map.

Spread over an area of around 15 hectares, Baansera is Delhi’s first bamboo-themed park and part of DDA’s Kalindi Aviral project. It was inaugurated by lieutenant governor VK Saxena on August 9, 2022. The park has over 13,000 bamboos comprising 15 varieties from the Bambusa and Dendrocalamus families.

Meanwhile, experts have warned that planting such a wide variety of bamboo was not conducive to their growth.

“Planting over 100 such species is a bad idea as different species require a different soil type and water demand. The survival rate will be low too. Bamboo also does not offer considerable ecological benefits, barring acting as food to grass and seed-eating birds. Since most of these are not native, there is a considerable cost involved to maintain and grow them, without enough ecological benefits coming out of it,” said Sumit Dookia, a wildlife biologist and assistant professor at Delhi’s Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University. Dookia added that only one bamboo species — Dendrocalamus strictus — is native to NCR and should be preferred over other species.