SRINAGAR, OCT10: J&K and Ladakh High Court has closed a Public Interest Litigation, seeking its directions to upkeep parks especially in the twin capitals of Srinagar and Jammu.
A Division Bench of Chief Justice N. Kotiswar Singh and Justice Moksha Khajuria Kazmi said: “This Court is satisfied that the authorities are doing the needful for maintenance and preservation of the green space and parks,” “We are of the view that it may not be necessary for us to monitor the same at this stage and accordingly, the present PIL is closed with the above observations,” the court said.
However, it said that if the authorities do not continue with or fail to maintain and preserve the green space and parks, liberty is granted to the petitioner for reactivation of the PIL.”
The court’s orders followed perusal of status reports filed by the authorities, highlighting the various measures taken to maintain and preserve parks and gardens in and around the city of Srinagar as well as in Jammu
The authorities submitted that they successfully completed the Tulip Show with the concerted efforts of various wings of administration. The Tulip Garden, they said, has earned a prestigious spot in the World Book of Records (London). “This has been a monumental recognition of the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir hailing the Tulip garden as Asia’s largest tulip paradise, adorned with 1.5 million tulip bulbs,” they said.
They also submitted that four Mughal Gardens namely Nishat, Shalimar, Cheshmashahi and Pari Mahal have been placed in the tentative list of UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites. They said that a pilot project has been undertaken by the Department of Floriculture and JSWF (a public charitable trust) wherein a Memorandum of Understanding was signed on 28 July 2021 for a collaborative partnership for the conservation and maintenance work at the select sites of Shalimar Bagh and Nishat Bagh.
Similarly, Director Floriculture submitted that the department is presently maintaining 64 Parks and Gardens in the Jammu Division having an area of 1898.74 Kanals. The Director said single-use plastic and other plastic material has been strictly prohibited in all the existing parks and Gardens maintained by the Department. “All the existing Parks & Gardens maintained by the Department have been provided with Grill fencing so that no vision is obstructed from the outside,” the Director said, adding, “There is no encroachment in any of the parks/Gardens maintained by the Department as per the report of the field officers.”
