Lungs of South Delhi

I was driving out of Hauz Khas village today after office towards the Jaganath Temple and for the umpteenth time i saw women crawling through the fence with firewood. A few days ago it was a group of kids each with a bundle on their heads. Obviously someone is not doing his job. How can a patch of green the size of the deer park sustain the ever growing demand of the scavenging population of poor slum dwellers. The old trick is to enter these forests by night cut a young tree and leave it there. Come back after a few days and pick it up when it dries. They obviously find it cheaper and easier to do this than buying kerosene to cook their meals or heat themselves in winter.

The way things are in this great city of babus, a few years down the line a mass transport system might decide to take a detour through the Park and we lose some more trees like we did with the metro.

Like most cities of North India and localities of Delhi, Hauz Khas and its environs has a mixture of indegenous and ornamental trees. However unlike the more built up and congested colonies the lake and its surrounding park helps you walk and appreciate the green cover more easily.

This lung of South Delhi is semi wild and has both Shisham and Bangar trees with a host of other ornamental trees that have been planted over a period of time.
The best book to carry along would undoubtedly be Pradip Krishen's "Trees of Delhi".

Some of the more common trees visible in the walkaways around the lake are:

Shisham (Dalbergia sissoo)	Chinese Tallow Tree	Anjeeri (ficus palmata)
Peepal ficus religiosa)	Vilaiti Keekar	Neem ( Azadirachta indica)
Babool (Acacia indica)	Buddha's Coconut	Gulmohar (Delonix regia)
Laburnum	Amaltas ( Cassia Fistula)	Pilkhan ( Ficus virens)