Lady Willingdon’s love turns 75 today

The day-long festivities will start at 9.30 am with a heritage walk,flagged off by Chief Secretary P K Tripathy and led by historian Biba Sobti,and a plantation drive by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit. Over 200 school children from NDMC environment clubs will participate in the event,and as many as 100 workers will be felicitated by The Green Circle of Delhi,a volunteer group of green activists,on the occasion.

The Green Circle of Delhi founder member Suhas Borker told Newsline,“This is an effort at looking forward,and getting out of the colonial mode of looking at monuments in isolation. It is an effort to integrate monuments with people’s lives. We have to come out of our tendency to deface monuments by scribbling on them.”

A panel discussion will be held in the evening with Dr Mahesh Buch,chairman,National Centre for Human Settlements and Environment,Bhopal; P V Jayakrishnan,chairman,Central Empowered Committee and former Secretary,MoEF,and Chief Secretary of Delhi; Subhash Chandra,Director of Horticulture,New Delhi Municipal Council; and A G K Menon,Convener Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage,Delhi Chapter.

“During the discussion,there will be two power point presentations by INTACH and NDMC towards explaining how public money has been used to develop the site,” Borker said.

A G K Menon,Convenor,Delhi Chapter,INTACH,told Newsline,“This English garden has turned out to be a model garden for the Capital. The flora and fauna as well as the heritage structures on this site have been successfully preserved.”

A lot has happened to the area in the last 75 years,including the changing of its name from Lady Willingdon Gardens to Lodi.

Legend has it that Lady Willingdon fell in love with the site and wished to develop the area,which was then the village of Khairpur,into a garden. However,the curse of Khairpur Sufi (whose shrine is located in the garden) fell on Willingdon,and he was recalled to Britain just nine days after it was thrown open.

Lodi Gardens houses five ASI-protected monuments,four monuments protected by the State department of Archaeology and a butterfly park,which was inaugurated last year.