Lodhi Garden turns 90

Lodhi Garden turned 90 on April 9, marking nine decades since the New Delhi park opened as Lady Willingdon Park in 1936. (hindustantimes.com) The park sits in the capital’s center and combines medieval monuments with a large public garden used daily by walkers, runners and birdwatchers. Its best-known structures include the tombs of Muhammad Shah and Sikandar Lodi, along with Bada Gumbad and Shish Gumbad. (indianexpress.com) New Delhi Municipal Council officials and recent anniversary coverage put the garden at roughly 80 to 90 acres, with more than 5,400 trees and about 210 plant species under regular care. NDMC’s own horticulture material says the site was inaugurated on April 9, 1936. (indianexpress.com) (ndmc.gov.in) The anniversary landed as Delhi heads into another hot season, when large urban parks double as cooling spaces as well as heritage sites. Recent reporting around the event also tied Lodhi Garden’s upkeep to wider concerns about protecting the city’s shrinking ecological buffers, including the Aravalli landscape. (indianexpress.com) Lodhi Garden’s current identity was shaped in phases. After Independence, the colonial-era Lady Willingdon Park was renamed Lodhi Garden, and in 1968 architect Joseph Allen Stein led a redesign that added features including a long spiral lake. (news18.com) (ndmc.gov.in) The site has also become a template for how Delhi packages culture in historic green spaces. This week, SPIC MACAY and the Aga Khan Trust for Culture announced a three-day World Dance Day and World Heritage Day festival at Sunder Nursery, another restored heritage garden in the city, for April 17 to 19. (thepatriot.in) (etvbharat.com) At 90, Lodhi Garden remains a rare Delhi address where pre-Mughal and Lodhi-era tombs, formal landscaping and everyday public use still share the same ground. The anniversary coverage focused as much on that balance as on the date itself. (hindustantimes.com) (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)