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Nageswara Rao Park is a 4-acre (1.6-hectare) park located on Luz Corner in Mylapore, Chennai, India. The park, with a separate play area for children, is kept open to the public from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. and is a popular place for morning walks among the locals. The park also hosts music kutcheris and civic forums, on the weekends all year round. The park has a badminton court. The park is maintained by Sundaram Finance.

History

Nageswara Rao Park was originally called Arathakuttai (big pond). In deference to a request by the Chennai Corporation, the owners of the pond, Ramayamma Pantulu, Aravamutha Iyengar and Nainiappa Mudaliar, donated the pond to the civic body for creating a park. After its creation, the park was named after Desodharaka Nageswara Rao Pantulu. It was opened to the public by P. S. Kumaraswamy Raja, the then Chief Minister of Madras, on 20 October 1940. Originally developed in a much smaller area on Luz Church Road, the park was expanded when more land was donated by Ramayee Ammal, M. Nainappa Mudaliyar, V. Kumaraswamy Raja, Vinjamur Govindarajachari and Aravamadhu Iyengar in the same year. In 1996, the Chennai Corporation re-developed the park and started maintaining it. A pond known as Aaratha kuttai was filled in and made into a garden. It was Nageswara Rao, founder of the neighbouring Amrutanjan factory, who convinced the local residents to develop the area when the pond began to dry up. It is in his memory that the park was named after him.

Flora

Tree varieties found in the park include Lapostromea, Cassia fistula, Tabulia and foliage trees like Pungam, Neem, palms, Ficus religiosa and Thespesia. Medicinal and ornamental plants such as Tabubia, Copper pod, Enterolobium saman, Cassia sp. and Ixora sp. are also found in the park.

Developments

In 2002, an initiative named "Project Green Spaces - Dr. Nageswara Rao Park" was started, whereby the park was adopted by the Chennai Chapter of the American Chamber of Commerce in India (AMCHAM). This also included support from the local community, which had donated for the face-lift of the park. The estimated initial costs of the face-lift was pegged at ₹ 3 million, while the ongoing costs at ₹ 600,000 per annum. The establishment of a corpus fund of ₹ 10 million for the upkeep of the park was also proposed.

In 2009, a composting yard consisting of three pits was set up at the rear of the park to make compost from the garden waste that are collected from eight bins in the park. The project is funded by Sundaram Finance, which also maintains the park belonging to the Chennai Corporation.

Incidents

On 7 November 2010, a man was killed while taking a morning stroll on the dedicated track in the park, when a tree branch snapped off and fell on his head after a heavy rain due to cyclone that passed near the city after a gap of 14 years.

See also

• Parks in Chennai

References

1. "California student performs at Nageswara Rao Park". The Hindu. 12 August 2012. Retrieved 10 January 2019.
2. Lakshmi, K. (6 May 2010). "Cultivating oratory skill at park". The Hindu. Chennai. Retrieved 2 October 2012.
3. TNN (6 May 2010). "Green & brown: 2 shades of parks". The Times of India. Chennai: The Times Group. Archived from the original on 25 December 2014. Retrieved 25 December 2014.
4. "Health is a walk in the NR Park". The Hindu. 28 August 2012. Retrieved 1 October 2012.
5. ^ Ramakrishnan, Deepa H (7 June 2009). "Compost made out of waste in park". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 10 June 2009. Retrieved 2 October 2012.
6. "Time to restore vanishing water bodies". Madras Musings. XXVIII (2). 1–15 May 2018. Retrieved 21 October 2018.
7. ^ Frederick, Prince (28 August 2002). "With a dash of glamour..." The Hindu. Chennai. Archived from the original on 24 June 2003. Retrieved 12 May 2013.
8. ^ Amirthalingam, M. "Parks of Chennai". Envis Centre on Conservation of Ecological Heritage and Sacred Sites of India. CPREEC. Retrieved 4 February 2012.
9. ^ Karthikeyan, Aparna (28 August 2012). "City 360 — A walk in the park". The Hindu. Chennai. Retrieved 16 September 2012.
10. Narayanan, Vivek (8 November 2010). "Uprooted trees, snapped power cables cyclone Jal" leaves its impact". The Times of India. Chennai. Archived from the original on 4 January 2013. Retrieved 21 September 2012.

Further reading

• Muthiah, S. (2014). Madras Rediscovered. Chennai: EastWest. ISBN 978-93-84030-28-5.

• Parks in Chennai
• Tourist attractions in Chennai
• Urban public parks