Cubbon Park sees a facelift with minor repairs by volunteers

Bengaluru: Cubbon Park is seeing a steady facelift with minor improvements helmed by an NGO’s skilled workers and citizen volunteers joining them. The project has been taken up under the supervision of the horticulture department. 

The India Rising Trust, a not-for-profit charitable organisation, has, over the past two months, repaired and restored to their old glory small fences, the four gazebos providing shelter to parkgoers from the sun and rain, several footpaths used by walkers, and a broken pergola in Queens Park. 

Arun Pai, founder, BangaloreWALKS and a coordinator at the NGO, said that in March, they submitted a letter to the department, volunteering to do these works at no cost to the department and no self-branding, with existing materials at the park and resources pooled together through the trust. The organisation is already an official partner with the BBMP and has worked on projects such as developing the areas under flyovers, and painting underpasses and metro pillars. 

Using CSR funds, they are currently repairing drains near the park entry points so that sewage and stormwater from roads don’t enter the park. Additionally, they also organise public volunteer events on the weekends. Three such events have been conducted to spruce up the gazebos, the area around the Bal Bhavan, and a traffic island opposite the State Central Library. 

“Cubbon Park is a jewel in the crown of Bengaluru that we are fortunate to inherit. We must all do what we can to help the authorities preserve and improve it with unconditional volunteering,” Arun said. 

Funds redirected

M Jagadeesh, Joint Director, Parks and Gardens, Lalbagh, explained that the decision to permit the NGO to take up these works came after meetings with the department’s higher officials. 

“A gazebo that provides shelter from the rain was damaged about three months ago due to a tree fall. We had planned to restore it and were getting the paperwork ready when this NGO approached us. We readily agreed,” he said. 

He added that the funds set aside by the department to fix that gazebo have been redirected to planting and water conservation works inside the garden, based on priority. 

He also noted that if public volunteers wanted to approach the department’s technical committee with a proposal to help out, they would look into it as long as it didn’t harm the park’s ecosystem.

Those willing to volunteer with the NGO, contact [e-mail].