The summer capital Srinagar is acutely short of green spaces as per the national-level standards.
The official data revealed that Srinagar has 169 parks, covering about 287 hectares land, against a minimum standard of 570 hectares under the green spaces as per the Urban and Regional Development Plans Formulation and Implementation (URDPFI) guidelines-2015.
“This implies that the total area available under organized parks and gardens is deficient by close to 50 percent,” reads a document prepared by government’s Housing and Urban Development Department.
A senior official said there was no denying the fact that the city was grossly deficient in organized green spaces, parks and gardens.
The URDPFI guidelines suggested standards for open spaces in large and metropolitan cities are 1.2 hectares per 1000 persons to 1.4 hectares, depending upon the land availability.
Similarly, World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that cities should provide nine sqmtrs of unpaved open space for every inhabitant. But Srinagar has just 2.6 sqmtrs per capita green space availability for each city dweller.
The official said the world body has also suggested designing green area networks so that all residents live within a 15 minute walk to an open space.
In 2018, the J&K High Court had asked the state Chief Secretary to take a call on the letter addressed by a former judge of the Court, suggesting enhancing green space in Srinagar.
Former Chief Justice of Bihar, Justice (retd) Bilal Nazki had in May 2016 also written a letter to the Chief Justice of J&K, highlighting how the city lacks the green spaces.
In 2017, the High Court treated the letter as Public Interest Litigation. Srinagar has lost many historic gardens due to apathetic attitude of successive authorities, including DewanBagh, Baghi Ali Mardan and BaghiDilawar Khan.
At least five government agencies are directly responsible for the development and maintenance of public parks in J&K including department of floriculture, Srinagar Municipal Corporation, Srinagar Development Authority, J&K Housing Board and Landscape Division and PW(R&B) department.
The Smart City project, however, says that under the area based development, 76 percent area will be developed on modern lines, 19 percent are will be developed as green field and five percent area will be redeveloped for specific purposes.