Conserving and enhancing biodiversity of a residential area in an urban setting: case of Sarnath, Varanasi

Abstract

Varanasi, said to be the oldest living city of human history, has gone through various hases of change whether cultural, social, religious or developmental changes after the industrialization period. During these processes of change the city has emerged as cultural, educational, industrial, trade and tourism centre for the surrounding areas. Thus receiving large number of footfall resulting into high demands of infrastructural support. In previous years it has been decided to develop the city as a smart city, which further creates pressure to develop infrastructural facilities. City is expanding towards its outskirts as the core is already tightly packed with high density residential and commercial zones. This creates an alarming situation for the open/ green areas in and around the city and thus to the related biodiversity too. If we go through the ancient scriptures the place was full of woodlands meadows, gardens, fruit orchards, ponds, lakes etc. which is an ideal condition for biodiversity to exist and grow. In one of the scriptures Lord Shiva describes the place to Goddess Parvati that see this is my favourite place which is full of fruit orchards, woods, dense forests, rivers, streams, wild animals, birds. That is why I like this place much over others. So there are two extreme opposite situation if compare the two times. This thesis aims to minimize the gap between the above two situations. In today‟s era development is necessary but at the same time biodiversity is equally important for mankind to survive in a long run. Sarnath is place which still has some large open spaces, manicured or natural. It was full of woods, deers, and peacocks even in the start of 20th century. Now days this parcel of land is also threatened by land mafias and developers. The attempt would be to create such an environment in which biodiversity will be in centre of every and any type of change which takes place in the region in order to conserve and enhance the area in terms of biological diversity.