Dried lake and rose garden, defunct lawn tennis court in Mumbai University

Infrastructure built on Mumbai Universityrsquos Kalina campus as part of its development and biodiversity projects is now in ruinsA lake that was included in the recently inaugurated biodiversity park used to have fish and other marine creatures like turtles but is now halfdried and covered in algae A rose garden that in 2010 hosted the prestigious All India Rose Convention is now one driedup corner on the campus A tennis court developed with the help of the All India Tennis Association AITA is now entangled in a court case and lying unusedLake takeThe Mumbai University created the artificial lake on its Kalina campus with much zeal over a decade back but thatrsquos where the enthusiasm ended The water body continues to dry and the marine lives within are long deadAlso read Mumbai Dadar FOB to finally land at platform 4The rose garden once hosted the All India Rose Convention PicDipti SinghOn October 15 the varsity along with the Rotaract Club inaugurated a biodiversity park on the campus The lake was filled with tanker water cleaned and this was widely publicised The cosmetic dabs however didnrsquot last longWhen midday visited the park on November 8 and again on Wednesday we saw the lake was back to its halfdried avatar and part of it was covered by a thick layer of algae The lake is sixfoot deep and 75 feet in diameterAn official when questioned refused to agree that the lake is in bad shape and showed photos of the October 15 inauguration of the biodiversity parkldquoThere was a time when there were different types of fish in the lake there were ducks and turtles In 2017 these fishes and turtles were found dead Whenever someone complains they fill up the lake with tanker water It stinks and mosquitoes have started breeding on it Money spent on the lake has gone down the drainrdquo said Ashish Dwivedi a varsity alumnus and Mumbai President of Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh SamitiWhat gardenOn the occasion of World Environment Day in June 2009 the Mumbai Universityrsquos Kalina Campus inaugurated a rose garden But even it is in a pathetic state nowldquoThe rose garden now looks like an abandoned graveyard with wild bushes and the inaugural plaque from far looks like a tombstone When I asked one of my teachers I was told the administration has neglected the placerdquo said a student living on the campusA D Sawant former provice chancellor of MU who was then president of the Mumbai Rose Society had said that the garden was built to raise awareness about the growing climatic changes The university had grown over 10000 varieties of flowers the majority of which were roses ldquoWe did these projects in 200910 the next leadership had to just get them maintained So many of these places are now in bad condition The university does not have a fulltime vicechancellor and provice chancellor now what about those who held the post before them Was maintaining a rose garden that difficult The university is struggling at every step even getting studentsrsquo names wrong on the certificates what do you expect Even the biodiversity park will meet the same end if neglected like other infrastructurerdquo said SawantOfficial speakldquoThe lake project is ongoing we are working on it with the help of CSR funds and even the Rotaract Club is involved The project will take time to complete We will see what interventions other infrastructure needs and take action accordinglyrdquo said a senior university official