Safety & cleanliness concerns emerge at Dehradun parks ahead of monsoon

Dehradun: With the monsoon around the corner, several public parks in the city continue to struggle with poor maintenance, raising concerns over hygiene and visitor safety.A visit to the parks, including Gandhi Park, the Nagar Nigam park on Nalapani Road, Jungletoons near the Tibetan Market, the children’s play area at Parade Ground and Deen Dayal Upadhyay Park near Tehsil Chowk, found overgrown grass, garbage, slippery walking tracks, uncleared drains filled with leaves and silt, rusted or damaged swings and mosquitoes at several locations.At Gandhi Park, overflowing dustbins and garbage were found while drains remained clogged with leaves and silt. A pile of organic waste left in a corner for composting had not been segregated from plastic bottles and other litter, which could be washed across the park during heavy rain.Dr Ashok Aggarwal, who has been a regular at Gandhi Park for the past 35 years, said while the park is in a better condition than before, there was much scope for improvement.

“There is one toilet on the main road that one can access from inside the park also, but there should be a washroom inside the park premises. The park is huge, a space can easily be allotted for such a basic amenity. Moreover, the overall cleanliness can be improved,” he said.At Jungletoons near the Tibetan Market, garbage was scattered across parts of the park and broken swings posed a risk to children using the play area.

Omkar Singh, who had come to Jungletoons with his two children, said, “I bring my children here regularly but the park’s maintenance has gone down. There are heaps of garbage lying around and also overgrown grass here.”Expressing concern that the situation would worsen with the onset of the monsoon, he said, “Now, with a couple of recent spells of rain, there are mosquitoes too. Once the monsoon begins, the risk of vector-borne diseases will increase.”At the children’s play area at Parade Ground, iron rods were found sticking out from slides, raising safety concerns. While the Nagar Nigam park was found to have overgrown grass, Deen Dayal Upadhyay Park was in a deplorable condition, with food packets, bottles and other litter scattered across the premises. Mounds of partially burnt garbage were also present.Chief municipal health officer Anand Shukla said the civic body had recently inspected public parks and addressed some of the issues. “We’ve got the drains cleaned ahead of monsoon and have deputed a supervisor to address issues reported by visitors. We’ll ensure that the remaining concerns are also resolved,” he said.