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Delhi soaks up the sun with cold, Covid on their way out

Over the last few weekends, thousands of people have been enjoying the sun and taking in the beauty of nature in Delhi's green spaces, among them Lodhi Garden, Sunder Nursery and Nehru Park. At least 17,000 people visited Sunder Nursery on over the weekend of 12 February. “We received encouraging response from the first weekend of February when this heritage space opened on both Saturday and Sunday after restrictions on entry in January,” said Ratish Nanda, CEO, Aga Khan Trust for Culture, India. “We have planted several native flowers and these have also started blooming, adding to the aesthetics of the garden.”

Delhi’s outskirts abuzz with efforts to bolster Capital’s bee population

The dwindling bee population over the last decade has slowly become a matter of concern, prompting conservation efforts across different cities around the world, including Delhi. At Sunder Nursery, the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) has set up 12 bee boxes along with Golden Hive Foundation. Ratish Nanda, CEO of AKTC said the idea arose from the need to not only protect these bees, but to spread awareness on their significance to the ecosystem. “Bees play a crucial role in pollination and eventually food creation. The idea is to educate people on how to develop habitats for bees and to protect them, for which workshops are held frequently.” The plan is to eventually “create a dedicated space for bees with signs and display centres where the bee boxes will be kept in the centre,” he said.

e-School for Preschool: Changing the face of education

In India, the Aga Khan schools – which have been delivering quality early childhood development programmes since 1978 – have developed a home-based blended learning “e-School for Preschool” programme for students aged 3-6 years:  1’000 children across urban and rural regions in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Telangana are learning and connecting digitally from home.

The best weekend picnic spots in Delhi for winters and summers

Sunder Nursery is famous for its gardens, water bodies, monuments, and biodiversity. Created and managed by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC), once barren land, the park has quickly grown to become the city’s most sought after outdoor recreational place. This 16th-century urban oasis has risen from ruins to become the green lungs of Delhi. A decade of painstaking restoration work has resulted in a 90-acre (36 hectares) biodiversity park, dotted with 20 historical monuments including six UNESCO World Heritage sites, 27,000 saplings, 4,500 trees, 100 bird species, 40 butterfly species, two amphitheatres, a bonsai enclosure, a peafowl zone and plenty more. In 2018, the park was chosen by ‘Time Magazine’ as one of the 100 world’s greatest places to visit. Recently in 2020, it became Delhi’s first heritage complex to receive two UNESCO Asia-Pacific awards for Cultural Heritage Conversation 2020 – the Award of Excellence and Special Recognition for Sustainable Development. 

A Sunday with bees: Beekeeper shares his world

Rakesh Gupta, a 62-year-old beekeeper from Lucknow in India, travels with his beehive-boxes across the country. He migrates with them to orchards in Kashmir, the coasts of Gujarat, the high altitudes of Himachal Pradesh, to Uttarakhand and to Rajasthan. Golden Hive Foundation and Gupta are working with the Aga Khan Trust for Culture at Sunder Nursery to help keep the bees in the nursery safe and thriving. They are creating a healthy bee ecosystem with artificial hives and natural hives below the ground. Gupta highlights the need of abundant flora for bees. The foundation manages a small demonstrative apiary and creates awareness about the depleting population of bees. In October last year, Gupta held a workshop called ‘Know the Bee’ at Sunder Nursery to raise awareness on the vital role played by bees as pollinators in the ecosystem. A diverse audience attended the workshop. They ranged from people who study insect behaviour and volunteers interested in apiaries from Give Me Trees Trust to bankers, engineers, and writers.

Nizamuddin Basti wins UNESCO Awards for Excellence and Sustainability

For the second year running the Aga Khan Trust for Culture has won two important awards from UNESCO’s Asia-Pacific regional office – the Award for Excellence and Special Recognition for Sustainable Development – for its holistic urban revitalisation of Delhi’s historic Nizamuddin Basti. 

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