In old Manali, Near Beas-Bihal, is situated a newly constructed Nature Park that manifested into reality owing to the efforts of an IFS officer Aishwarya Raj. Raj designed the whole park on an I-pad and, along with his teammates, brought it to reality. The idea to start this project was initiated in year 2018.
A wasteland of 15 hectares area along River Beas in old Manali was to be eco-restored into a Nature park that along with being a scenic, green zone for locals/tourists, would also provide livelihood opportunities to the locals of Old Manali. The DPR of the project was submitted by Neeraj Chadha, DCF Kullu, then in the year 2018-19 and was approved by Government of India.
On Sunday, Himachal Chief Minister Jairam Thakur along with Chief Conservator of Forest Anil Joshi, Kullu inaugurated the Nature park and Swarnim Vatika Kothi. The Beas Bihal Nature Park would provide clean and beautiful natural environment to tourists, besides providing employment opportunities to the local people, said CM Himachal Jairam Thakur.
CCF Anil Joshi said, “Keeping in view the importance of forests, the state government is laying emphasis on expansion and strengthening of forest area. As many as 4,38,12,000 saplings have been planted during various Van Mahotsav organised during four years in the state.”
Aishwarya Raj told The Daily Guardian, “My tenure in Kullu as DCF lasted for one year, but the experience of working on this unique eco-restoration project was much larger! Covid did play some spoilsport, but it also gave me ideas to reimagine and bring to life the concepts that would showcase the win-win for environment and development alike!”
He added further that reviving a vast pact of the wasteland into something meaningful for both nature and nature seekers was a challenge. “But,” he said, “we imbibed all the elements of environmentalism, creativity, green and local architecture into its making.”