Byculla Gardens will turn 150 this year

Next year, one of the oldest and popular institutions in the city —the Veermata Jijabai or Byculla zoo - will complete 150 years.
Not many people in the city seem to know of this coming milestone andthis includes the zoo's managers, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), which still has no plans on how to commemorate the event. So last month, members of the conservation group called the Save Rani Bagh Garden Action Committee met a senior municipal officer with some ideas on how the founding of one of the first public institutions in the city could be celebrated.

The Victoria Gardens, as the zoo was earlier known, was set up in AD 1861 by the Agro Horticultural Society of Western India as a botanical garden. Plant and tree specimens were transferred to the 35-acre plot in Byculla from a botanical garden in Sewree that was soon to be converted into an European cemetery.

Modeled after the famous Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew in London, the Victoria Gardens was laid out in the Renaissance Axial plan - a popular city planning style in Europe. From a grand three-arched gate and a clock tower, tree-lined paths branch away and met at junctions decorated with grand sculptures and fountains. Like its world famous older cousin in London, the Byculla gardens has a grand wooden conservatory for herbs and potted plants. The conservatory - now closed to visitors- was restored a few years ago and won an urban heritage award.

Though it looks a little decrepit, the zoo retains much of the elements in the elegant plan. But the park's character and greenery is under threat with the BMC planning to convert it into a copy of Singapore's famous zoo. The municipal officials who came up with the Rs 600 crore (current estimated cost) project did not care about the fact that while the Singapore park was set up as a zoo, the Victoria Gardens was set up as a botanical garden.
Over the years, the garden has also become a natural habitat for wildlife like bats, birds and insects that a fleeing the growing concrete jungle.

The Save Rani Bagh Garden Action Committee was set up to oppose the redevelopment plans that could be the death-knell for this unique institution. Among their suggestions to the municipal corporation are to name and number every tree as per a recent survey, open the wooden conservatory to the public, nature walks, brochures that will provide information on trees and plants and a library with books and DVDs on nature conservation issues.