SIGN THIS TO SAVE A SMALL FOREST AND NURSERY IN A CITY OF CONCRETE

HSVP nursery in sector 14, Gurugram (the millennium city famous for multinational company offices and glitzy malls), is a small 11 acre green lung in a residential area. It has 6 acres of nursery, with sections for tree saplings, flowering and ornamental plants, with scores of diverse old trees shading the beds below. The remaining nearly 5 acres is a micro forest with very old trees ranging from fig to bamboo and a thriving bird population, now under jurisdiction of GMDA. 

HSVP now plans to construct in these premises a museum, a section for handicraft shops and an urban forestry institute building, with proposals under consideration for an experimental miyawaki forest. 

Construction is not allowed within 900m of the ammunition area nearby, yet inexplicably, such proposals are being pursued. 

The residents of various colonies nearby (sector 14, 17, 12, village Sukhrali and Rajiv Nagar) have already lost most of the green belt and open lawns to various projects,  including the recent much opposed Waste to Wonder transport museum forcibly constructed in the green and much-used residential park nearby (a case for which is filed in the High Court).

This is a petition to HSVP (Chief administrator, Chandigarh and Administrator Gurugram) and CEO, GMDA, to drop all proposals of new construction in the HSVP nursery and micro forest areas and

1. Declare it a biodiversity zone,  considering the wealth of old trees therein.

2. Use expertise of environmentalists involved with Aravali biodiversity park to maintain the micro forest in a natural way and also allow citizens to enjoy walks within by making eco friendly paths.

3. Drop the idea of miyawaki forest as there is a natural micro forest anyway. Miyawaki is expensive and unnatural, that creates stress in trees and inhibits other animals and birds from making it a natural habitat. 

4. Understand that this green lung is the last barrier for thousands of people living here, between their well being and ill-health due to rising temperatures/ pollution. Degradation of this last slice of kuchha land with concrete and construction  is unacceptable. 

5. Foster forest education through workshops. Start horticultural project like growing organic vegetable and fruit without pouring a drop of concrete. Urban forestry needs only old trees and knowledgeable minds. Not buildings.