Northern Ridge Biodiversity Park

Northern Ridge Biodiversity Park covers 87 hectares of the Northern Ridge, or Kamla Nehru Ridge, near Delhi University. It forms part of the Delhi Ridge of the Aravalli Range and falls within the leopard wildlife corridor of the Northern Aravalli. The Delhi Development Authority engaged Delhi University scientists to create it as one of four further biodiversity parks for the city, and it was restored in 2014-16.

The work centred on Prosopis juliflora, or vilayati kikar, an invasive tree of Mexican origin planted by the British in the 1920s to rehabilitate wasteland. Its 15-m-deep roots lowered the water table, and native species died out as a result. In 2014 it was replaced with 15 native species, with a longer-term aim of bringing back 5,000 native plant species known here 150 years ago. Delhi's ridges are being replanted with mahua, haldu, sheesham and bael, in the hope of reviving animals such as leopard, Indian rock python, jackal and porcupine.