Curbs in Cubbon: 'Using park is fine but misuse isn't'

On a hot summer afternoon, Mahantesh, his wife and his sister were seen resting on the Cubbon Park lawn. They had come from Bijapur to Bengaluru for some work.

“They don’t allow vendors here, but they are outside the park. We went outside to get food, but we ate here,” said Mahantesh. The packaging was thrown in the nearby dustbin and the area was clean.

A board near the Metro gate of Cubbon Park displays the do’s and don’ts inside the park. Many of these rules banning littering, climbing on pergolas, smoking, drinking and taking drugs and unsafe activities are useful.

Read | Curbs in Cubbon Park: When a park excludes people

However, some rules sound overly strict. Among them are those that ban sitting and walking on the lawn, eating on the lawn, capturing photos and playing games. There is also an item called ‘Nuisance’ — meaning “indecent behaviour”.

What does “indecent behaviour” mean?

Two cops watched the activities inside the park, a few metres away from the Band Stand. “We keep a watch on indecent behaviour and eve-teasers and look out for illegal activities. At any point in time, there will be two cops roaming in the park,” said one of them.

The cops do not disturb couples sitting in the park publicly, but they discourage them from going into bushes etc “because of snakes”. There are also CCTVs here and there. He added that the area was generally safe and there was no police case filed recently.

A few metres away, two Hindi-speaking people were busy chatting. An old man sold roasted peanuts — he was the only hawker inside the park that day. In general, hawkers and beggars are banned inside the park.

In practice, things do not operate so strictly. Cubbon Park still remains a delightful public space where all kinds of people sit on the lawn, eat, chat, rest, play and have fun. Then what is the problem?

‘Irresponsibility a problem’

President of Cubbon Park Walkers Association, Umesh highlights the issues with playing inside the park. “Kids come and skate on the lawns in the park. The Horticulture Department spends Rs 1 crore rupee every year to maintain the lawns, why should anyone spoil them?” he asks.

“People want to play cricket here. Is this a place for that? They don’t allow people to play in Lalbagh or BBMP parks, why should it be allowed in Cubbon Park?” he adds, adding that these spaces should be used by people who want to relax, while there are playgrounds for all types of games and sport.

“Not all those who eat in the park are mindful, they don’t dump the garbage in the bins. They litter plastics and food waste on the lawn, which attracts stray dogs,” says Umesh.

He feels people should be allowed to enjoy the park, and the park should not become the property of a few elites. At the same time, people should be responsible, he says.

Dogs also turn out to be a problem sometimes, he explains. A few pet owners set their dogs free inside the park. “This leads to dogs defecating on the lawns, and the owners do not clean it up. Also, sometimes people get scared of dogs,” he says.

Vehicles, illegal constructions

He points at the bigger issues. Vehicles roam inside the park, causing noise and pollution, scaring away the wildlife and posing safety risks to walkers and senior citizens, he says. He recalls the accidents that took place inside the park due to vehicles.

“Both Lalbagh and Cubbon Park are under the Horticulture Department. Why should they have different rules? Lalbagh has compounds but Cubbon Park does not,” he points out.

According to Umesh, the constructions coming up inside Cubbon Park on the land leased to various clubs are a bigger problem. In a petition filed in 2021, he accused Century Club of constructing permanent structures on land leased from the Horticulture Department and using them for private entertainment purposes. The club also allegedly obstructed a Smart City project to lay cycling tracks inside the park, in order to keep their entry from Cubbon Park open. The case is still in court.