Tughlakabad - The Forgotten Piece of Land somewhere around New Delhi

Ghazi Malik, Alauddin Khalji’s general was put to throne with the title Ghiasuddin Tughlaq, after the defeat of Khusro Khan in 1320. The location of the fort, some 7 kms east of the earler cities of Lal Kot & Siri, was entirely dictated by strategic concerns.  And so this rocky outcrop was picked, surrounded by ravines on the north, east & west and bounded on the south by a flat plain.

This third city of Delhi was enclosed with an area of around 6.5 sq.kms, which due to the lack of maintanence and management could be seen in a disastrous situation with pond and unwanted grass and plants with no sense of human values and they say, it's a protected and conserved monument. 

The fort was completed in just a span of around 4 years, as all the labourers around Delhi, were deployed in the construction of the same. sufi saint, Nizamuddin Aulia, pleaded to the Sultan to spare some workers for his 'baoli'(wellness) which he declined. On this Aulia is sail to have given two curses to him : ‘ya rahey gujjar, ya rahe ujar’ and ‘hunuz dilli door ast’(Delhi is yet far). 

On the inauguration of the new Capital, Sultan died under said conspiracy hatched by his son, Mohammad-bin-Tughlaq. The fort after the tragic death of his buiider, never got occupied and was finally abandoned in 1327. Following the abandonment, a settlement of the gujjar herdsmen, as per the prophecy came up within the precincts, which later was known as Tughlakabad village.

Beautiful sunset - Worst Condition Children from the surroundings could be seen playing their sports here at various sites inside the fort. Animals could also be seen like buffalo, donkey, etc, grazinf grass here. The fort is under disastrous situation as far as the conservation of some place which holds very much importance as far as our history is concerned.

After the formation of the Archaeological Survey of India, the fort was declared a protected monument. However, over the years, the villagers encroached upon the land of the fort beyond the limit of the village building houses and selling plots. Due to political exigencies, the leadership and the Government of the day has always preferred to look the other way. It’s a ruined fort. Its’ open for the visitors from sunrise to sunset and few things are still the same way.

Lows and Downs -
The ignorance of the authorities at proper time, resulted in the so-called illegal human settlement, which could have been avoided or either could still be saved, as extreme situtation is still to occur.

The villagers tries to prove their existence to be around 700 years with no real evidences for it, some historians believes it to be at least 300 years old. Built-up and infrastructure has improved quite a bit with very poor civic amenities and facilities. There’s sewage problem, people are still poverty-stricken. Employment rate has however increased with being in the vicinity of the national capital, but education status hasn’t increased to the level. If the fort hadn’t been a ruined one, than it may attract the tourist and may help in increasing their income.

The historic city of Delhi consists of the seven capital cities formed at different eras of the history of the Indian Subcontinent. The city of Tughlakabad can be seen the worst mainatained and managed of them all. What it all needs, is just a proper care, maintenance, and firstly the upheaval and it could only add to the economic value of the national capital city of The Republic of India.

Lack of Fore-sightedness in the formation of various URBAN Policies.

Urban Renewal Mission a Failure

The various urban policies introduced and implemented by the government have failed to get executed in the real sense or may be sometimes, the situations are misread as well. Here's an article regarding the failure of one such attempt, the seeds of whose though have born into some fruits, but it seem the situation was well interpreted according to the common human intellectual level, but they are/were in fact built to cop-up with the current situation lacking the 'Forward Planning' Approach which are in a way very much essential for the development and growth of our future cities.

Urban renewal mission a failure: CAG - The Hindu
 

The Denial of the Urban Ecosystem !

Way for the Efficient Management of the Natural System We are Living In

The Urban Ecosystem - Depiction
Source : - http://inhabitat.com/

We may have seen the management related problems regarding the sewerages and waste materials of various cities. Though the lack of awareness amongst the people is also an issue in this regard but it may also be increased by the various awareness programs relating the issue on the authorities behalf only. We can't wait for the people to get educated as this will ask for a period of time and still after becoming educated, it's not 100% sure that they will be educated with human values. This issue hence needs to be rooted out on the planning part only. Very few urban planners knows about the various urban ecosystem and if in case they are aware of the term, they will find it very difficult implementing them in their planning process, subsequently which leads them to ignoring the issue or rather just completing the various standards set by the concerned authorities. Very few of us may know that these urban ecosystem if wisely used, serves the best for the various 'Solid waste disposal systems'. For instance, if wetlands are considered, they results in better water management in advantage with, that it also reduces the cost factor and may increase the recreational cultural values. It may serve in a number of very intense issues. Planning has rather failed a long way in serving any these systems. 

Humanity is increasingly urban, but continues to depend on Nature for its survival. Cities are dependent on the ecosystems beyond the city limits, but also benefit from internal urban ecosystems. Seven different urban ecosystems have been identified: street trees; lawns/parks; urban forests; cultivated land; wetlands; lakes/sea; and streams.

When humanity is considered a part of nature, cities themselves can be regarded as a global network of ecosystems. If compared with true, natural ecosystems, the man-made ones are however immature due to features like their rapid growth and inefficient use of resources such as energy and water (Haughton and Hunter, 1994). Odum (1971) even observes cities to be ‘‘only parasites in the biosphere’’.

Most of the problems present in urban areas are locally generated, such as those due to traffic. Often the most effective, and in some cases the only, way to deal with these local problems is through local solutions. In this respect, the urban ecosystems are vital.

I have prepared a document which will help in giving you an overview with the values of urban ecosystems and how it may be used for regaining the things with the help of them. We, and more importantly planners should understand the 'Nature's Cycle' before doing any planning exercise as it leads to the quality of life of the thousands. Merging of an efficient environmentalist may give you some guidance and it'll surely help the whole urban area to be planned with a holistic and long serving approaches. Studies of various cities like Stockholm and Chicago, how they evolved and what were the things which timely,  sometimes their administration and sometimes the society themselves took the initiative and rooted out the problems they have faced. It's a high time for the developing nations, as the development is still in the early stages or you can say in the mid-early age and if it wouldn't been taken care of now, nothing can't be done ever after, except the destruction which will worsen the human life and their values.

My Administrator isn't working and hence not able to share the Google Doc. it seems the window has crashed, sorry for the inconvenience. I'll come back soon with the document as soon as I resolves the issue. Have fun till then and live every moment of your life as it'll never come back(and actually the moment passed never comes back). If any planners or concerned readers have some contradictories or comments, they are free to write to my mail, as the correct thing should always be valued under some parameters. I just want that the readers, do build in their minds some kind of imagination of the city they lives in and feel the difference, if it would have been your way, if you thinks that your city or the city you may have travelled earlier, could be made better if better planning activities would have occurred or rather, right and knowledgeable steps would have been taken.

Understanding The Urban Classical Approaches - Noteworthy Works.

Masters of their Times.

Patrick Geddes - One of the Masters
Source : -http://www.nationalparks.gov.uk/

Last time I wrote about 'The Failure of the Urban Planning'(http://ekisticsindia.blogspot.in/2013/08/failure-of-urbanplanning-journey-of.html) which was a start for better understanding of the failure of the approach which the mankind has been following for more than a century or so and which needs a key attention towards the same. Cities may be themselves compared to a Homo Sapiens. As a human being has his lifetime, cities also takes birth, grows into an adulthood stage and then declines for the end. As humans have advanced in the field of medical sciences and decreased the mortality rate, the same strategy may be followed for curing up the cities and to increase their lifetime. But the measures so far taken, especially in the developing world(though the rate of population growth is more), the scenario may have been better if we could have taken steps in a more co-ordinated manner.

There were/are many urban planner who has supported the growth of the cities in tandem with the environmental aspects, socio-culture-economic aspects and they were wise enough to invent a new approach which somewhere is always linked with the subject of the ekistics. I have hereby compiled the information onto one platform in order to understand the methodology of various thinkers and inventors of a new approach which may be implemented in some parts or as a whole in developing a new sustainable developmental growth of the urban cities/places.

Since India is still developing and there is still very much left as far as the Urbanisation is concerned, there are new cities to be developed, as, following the old approach and the approach followed by the developed nations will not solve the issue, as our 's issue are different when talked about the planning part. We are amongst the countries with the highest population growth rate and inhabiting the whole population with proper human values and living should be the prime task ahead of us. We have already faced the problems of the slums and concentration should be given that they don't happens again at least in the new developments to be taken place.

I wish the planners understand their role in a more specific manner and understand the formation and actual constituents of a city/urban space. Development never stops and it's always better as early as we understands the need of the hour. 

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwVzoCngKhRWeGljd2NIcjVwQms/edit?usp=sharing

This work contains some masters of their times in context with the milestones set in the field of Urban Planning. It may help in formulating a methodology and hence change the approach likewise so that inclusive and sustainable development may take place in true sense. The works of the masters of their times among the fraternity of the urban thinkers are noteworthy and should be taken a note of while performing any urban planning exercise. Have A Look at the Slides in the Above Link. I'll be back with a new blog soon. Have Fun and Enjoy the Life.