‘Swachh Mehrauli’ Drive: 45-year-old leads charge to fix park that turned into dumping ground

“The dhalao next to it is overflowing, so people began dumping garbage in the park. Every time we crossed the park, we had to cover our faces… we couldn’t even sit in the balcony, the smell was intolerable… It was such an eye sore, as well as a health hazard. It had to be cleaned up,” said Singhal.

The park before Singhal and her friends gave it a facelift. (Express Photo/Gajendra Yadav)

From approaching South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) councillor (Mehrauli) Aarti Singh and the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to help with the cleanliness drive, to collecting funds from residents, sweeping the park, picking up garbage and planting saplings — Singhal and her group of friends have given the park a facelift. Through a WhatsApp group, ‘Swachh Mehrauli’, the volunteers plan meetings, ask for donations and delegate various duties.

“The elderly living here have started taking walks in the park, the children now play badminton here, and all of us have a park right next to our homes to visit. It has made a huge difference to our lives,” said 44-year-old Uma Dabas, who lives in an apartment complex nearby.

On a balmy afternoon at the park, residents talk about how the ruins of walls were not visible till the cleaning drive was completed.

After ridding the area of garbage — roughly 20 trucks full of dump, according to Singhal — SDMC brought in 30 trucks full of mud to level the area. “We’ve been doing cleanliness drives in different wards of Mehrauli for a while now. Sandhya Singhal approached us on one such drive and asked us to help with the park. We have funded the bamboo boundary wall that they have raised, provided plants from our horticulture department, and helped with creating water supply for the plants using sewage water,” said Singh.

A DDA official said that “the park was a disaster earlier… there was so much garbage. We helped with picking up the garbage and providing plants”.