Do all public parks enable visitors to reconnect with nature?

Do all public parks enable visitors to reconnect with nature?

The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court recently took a serious view taking note of the poor maintenance of a park in the city. Hearing a public interest litigation petition, the court has directed Madurai Corporation to file a detailed report on steps to be taken to maintain and restore the park.

The court was hearing the petition seeking a direction to the authorities to restore the AR Memorial Children’s Park in K.K. Nagar. This is not the first time that the court has issued directions to the authorities to maintain parks in the city. Earlier, the ECO Park on Thangaraj Salai and the Rajaji Park near Tamukkam were under the High Court scanner. The PIL petitions are pending before the court.

In 2022, while disposing of a PIL petition that sought a direction to the authorities to maintain the parks under Madurai Corporation, the court observed that green spaces were vanishing due to urbanisation and that it has become a luxury for middle class and poor people to connect with nature. Perhaps, public parks created and maintained by the government are the only spaces available for common man. Thus, the idea that parks are merely spaces for recreation is long gone and they are valued for the social and ecosystem services they provide.

“Socially, public parks are spaces characterised by non-exclusivity, that the common men have provided for themselves. In urbanised landscapes, they are spaces that enable humans to reconnect with nature and have also been found to play a major role in mental well-being,” the court observed.

“Ecologically, they serve as spots of biodiversity and put nature back at the heart of urban life; they moderate temperatures and counter the urban heat island effect; they are urban lung spaces. Therefore, it is imperative to value public parks as social and ecological necessity than as spaces for amenities and public recreation”, the court had observed while disposing of the petition directing the Corporation to maintain the parks providing adequate facilities and also to take steps for the creation of new parks.

However, a few months later, yet another petition was filed before the High Court. In 2023, the petition sought a direction to the authorities to take steps to maintain and upgrade the infrastructure at Eco Park and Rajaji Park.

The petitioner, M. Pozhilan, had complained that there was a play area for children. However, the benches, slides and swings were rusted and broken and this made it unsafe for children. He also said that the restrooms were unclean. The fountain at ECO Park was not functioning and the water at the mini pond inside was stagnant and unclean. The park was poorly maintained and so was the Rajaji Park, he said.