Noida: A boundary wall has started to rise along a 32-acre stretch within the Biodiversity Park, to mark out land for deer enclosures meant for a night safari. Nearby, workers mix cement, sand and stone, the shrill whirr of a concrete mixer cutting through the silence of the otherwise green zone. A bulldozer shifts earth as workers break stones, adding to the din.The ongoing construction activities, residents say, have disrupted the tranquillity within the 75-acre park. “We used to walk, run, and cycle in the Biodiversity Park every day. Now the space has shrunk, and our fitness routine has taken a hit,” said Kumar Gaurav, a resident of Exotica Fresco in Sector 137, who started working out in the park, preferring it over a gym, since it opened in Aug 2020. He added that the noise and dust had affected the fitness activities within the park.Residents from sectors 137, 93 and 92, many of whom have spent years treating the park as an extension of their own backyards, said the Biodiversity Park in Sector 91 offered something increasingly rare in the fast-growing NCR city: a green sprawl. That calm, they claim, was now being renegotiated acre by acre, as Noida Authority started work on a Deer Park meant to bring sunset safaris and rescued wildlife onto the same grounds where they once ran their morning miles.While they are not averse to the idea of a deer park itself, several residents and walkers fear the construction will take from them the open paths, the unbroken quiet and even shrink the groundwater recharge zone.RN Singh, a retired defence ministry official who lives in Purvanchal Royal Park in Sector 137, said the jogging tracks and pathways inside the Biodiversity Park were already coming off in patches. But instead of fixing these, Noida Authority had begun erecting walls for the deer park project, he said. Currently, bricks, sand and construction material lie strewn across the grass and walkways.Atul Saxena, who lives in Supertech Ecociti nearby, told TOI that more than 500 walkers visit the park on a weekday morning. “The number crosses a thousand on weekends, which speaks volumes on how important the park has become to people living in the surrounding pigeon-hole towers,” he said.Not everyone sees a park under siege. Manoj Prasad, a former AOA president at Logix Blossom County, walks the park regularly and finds the anger overstated. There remains, he said, more than enough room to walk even with the Deer Park’s footprint carved out. He pointed abroad, to cities in the United States, Britain, New Zealand and Australia, where trails and wildlife occupy the same ground without apparent conflict, and asked why Noida’s park should be any different.“Long before the towers arrived, this land belonged to deer, peacocks and nilgai. Building them a home within it is only justified then,” he added.Residents, however, called for more transparency from Noida Authority, seeking to understand the project’s full scope and potential impact. Singh said a detailed map at the park’s entrances, laying out what is being built and where, would go some way toward easing the unease.Noida Authority’s director of horticulture Anand Mohan Singh said of the park’s total 75 acres, only 32 have been set aside for the Deer Park, and that stretch sits on the north-east side, with a separate entrance, which means the two public gates and the walkways between them remain untouched.The project, vetted by IIT Jammu and cleared by the Central Zoo Authority, will be completed with Rs 40 crore and will feature an open-range habitat for over 80 deer, nine deer enclosures, a butterfly park, an aviary, and a veterinary and rescue centre for animals, including those rescued near Noida airport. Officials expect the work to conclude in the current financial year, with the Authority setting a Dec 2026 deadline.
