Another garden located in North Delhi is Roshanra garden. Not many people have heard about it. It is more of a field for cricket. Sadly the history of the garden has been forgotten by the people. Once the garden was a beautifully created Mughal charbagh garden, made by Mughal princess Roshnara Begum, one of the daughters of Shah Jahan. The tomb of the princess is present in the garden. There was a time when the garden was surrounded by thick forest, but now it is surrounded by buildings and is the only green thing which would appear on the surface of the earth when seen from a bird’s eye. The tomb has been ruined and now it lies at one corner of the garden. There are lots of playgrounds present in it which are targeted to play football, cricket or badminton, etc. it is a paradise for sports lovers. These playgrounds are surrounded by thick shrubs and bushes which grow in utter wilderness. The size of the park is really astonishing. The garden area is just a small part of site, which contains a number of ornamental plants.
The garden doesn’t have many flowers which is quite disappointing. Although there is a small rose garden and an acupressure walkway. although there are is less maintenance and is not rare to see garbage littered out everywhere, the thick forest like appearance of the plants and trees have their own charm, as they are let to grow naturally. It invites a lot of migratory birds and many bird species breed over here. There is a pond inside the garden which provides pleasure to the human eyes. Also the natural setting of the garden invites a lot of birds. A number of bird watchers come here to see birds.
Speaking about the protected monuments s declared by the ASI, the tomb is known as baradari, which means open pavilions. The tomb has roofless graves with lattice screens surrounding it and halls with arched openings. the screens are inimically carved with geometric and floral patterns. The interiors of the hall are decorated with paintings and carvings. Today with time, the beauty has been destroyed.
The British tried to conserve the beauty of garden tomb by renovating it. in 1923, a club was opened by the British. This was known as the roshnara garden. it was huge too with an area of 22 acres. The club is very prestigious and boasts of the cricket ground and garden. There are safety issues inside as the garden as there are petty thefts and anti-social activities which have taken place during the recent times. It is not advisable to visit the garden after the dark. But during the night time, majorly the garden is filled with crowd. Maybe to visit Roshanra garden would not be a good idea if you are not a sports freak because of lack of interesting characters in the garden and unpleasant spaces due to low maintenance. But there is still history attached with it. the walls on the interiors of the baradari also have flowers, leaves and trees on it. unfortunately the walls are ruining with the color of the paints fainting out and the plaster withering out. It is a perfect simile for the current scenario of the garden with the plants and beauty of garden withering out.
