Delhi’s local parks once cherished for sunny winter strolls and communal gatherings are collapsing under neglect, leaving residents worried and wistful. At Pandav Nagar, a senior woman diagnosed with diabetes struggles with jammed gym equipment and cracked jogging tiles. Elsewhere, aging visitors and children dodge piles of trash and dangerous branches obstructing pathways.

Longtime park-goers like Shamsher Ali, who’s walked daily for 25 years, remember vibrant walking tracks and playgrounds but now find broken swings and disappearing flora. These aren’t isolated cases. In Jasola Vihar, MCD-managed parks show similar decay dead vegetation, no gardeners on duty despite 71% of horticulture posts lying vacant.

Audits reinforce this crisis: Delhi’s greenery could cut temperatures by up to 10 °C, yet most parks lack basic amenities like drinking water. Bird shelters and eco-support features are nearly nonexistent, even as urban heat intensifies.

These parks aren’t optional luxuries. They are vital community spaces, therapeutic zones, and climate buffers. Their deterioration highlights a failure in civic upkeep that’s stripping urban life of warmth, conversation, and quiet refuge.