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Aravalli Biodiversity Park becomes India's first OECM site, park's curator speaks about the journey

A feather has been added to the Haryana government's cap as Aravalli Biodiversity Park in Gurugram has been awarded the distinction of becoming the first OECM in India.

Aravalli Biodiversity Park becomes India s first OECM site park s curator speaks about the journey gcw
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Gurugram, First Published Feb 3, 2022, 9:56 AM IST

A feather has been added to the Haryana government's cap as Aravalli Biodiversity Park in Gurugram has been awarded the distinction of becoming the first OECM in India. For the unaware, OECM is a status conferred upon areas of rich biodiversity, for effective in-situ conservation of biodiversity outside of protected areas, like National Parks and Sanctuaries.

Vijay Dhasmana, the curator of the park, spoke to Asianet Newsable about the achievement.  He said earlier the 380 acres site was a mining site, a stone crushing site, but all activities were halted due to a ban by the Supreme Court of India in 2004. 

The local administration ---- Municipal Corporation Gurugram--- took the restoration into their hands in collaboration with I Am Gurgaon in 2010.  The park's vision was not a collection of trees or birds but represent new minds, new thoughts and give exposure to the young ones, he added. The park has become a small sanctuary harbouring endangered and rare plants of the Northern Aravali hills as Haryana is losing most of these plants rapidly to development and encroachments. 

Elaborating further, he said this park has the best plants in the Northern Aravalli area --- from Indan frankincense, to Dhok, to Dhak and much more. Over 300 species of native plants (trees, shrubs, herbs, climbers, grasses) have been added to the park with a vision to showcase the forest flora. The seeds of the plants were acquired from different places year-on-year basis, germinated in a nursery and over 50 schools, individuals from corporates and across cities came in together to plant them and make the park what it is today. 

On how did the park the OECM status, Vijay said the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) was given a task to assess the biodiversity of the Aravali Biodiversity Park, the impact of works undertaken so far and planning for the future in 2016. It was later said it is a very good restoration site. The National Biodiversity authority proposed IUCN that it should be given OECM status, he added.

As earlier said, it was barren land but today, it is home to numerous birds, reptiles, and other species which maintain the ecological balance. Today, the area functions as a native Aravali flora and fauna repository, a water conservation and recharge zone, a carbon sink, an educational space to spread awareness about environmental issues, and a recreational area for the citizens of Gurugram.  The park is a perfect example of the citizens' initiative to make a difference to their city. Residents of the city from all walks of life have participated in very many ways to create this native Aravali forest.   It has been developed based on the principle of 'of the people - for the people - by the people'.

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