A visit to HauzKhas Village

A report on visit to HauzKhas Village on March 30th, 2017 organized by the collage itself.
HauzKhas Village is situated in Deer Park, HauzKhas, South Delhi.

The place has its own charm that attracts locals as well as tourists, the juxtaposition of old
monuments and nature on one side and narrow lanes lined with cafes, boutiques and eateries
on the other make for a beautiful backdrop which gives the place an old, sophisticated yet
enthusiastic feel. Here a person can see both the old heritage from the HauzKhas Fort as
well as the modern and High-class life style in the form of the cafes, lounges & boutiques.

At the very starting of the village you see cafes and lounges, boutiques and eateries all
across through the lane till the fort. Then comes the old fort that looks beautiful and
peaceful, built by the Allaudin Khilji as a water reservoir to meet the needs of his city which
was later confiscated by FiruzShah Tughlaq. The HauzKhas Fort is consists of HauzKhas
Tank(Lake), Madrasa(Islamic school of learning), a small Mosque, The main tomb of FiruzShah,
six domed pavilions in the precinct built around a urbanized village with a medieval history
backing to 13th century which in all is a beautiful piece of Indo-Islamic Architecture blend with
the modern urban culture.

In the fort you can see people sitting, hanging out, chilling themselves and enjoying their leisure
time, from where the view of the lake can be seen which makes it more satisfying and appealing
to eyes in every sense possible. But as they say every coin has two sides, the other side of the
scenery is that people themselves are defacing and demeaning the architecture of the fort by
writing idiotic things or names on the wall of the monument which not only devalues the fort but
also makes it look ugly and not well taken care off from the outsiders eye. Although the lake
looks beautiful and spectacular from a distance but its water is highly polluted due to which the
color has changed into Green. The water of the lake gets polluted as cafes, lounges, and other
complexes releases their waste in the lake itself you can also see people throwing garbage in the
lake without having a sense in mind that they are degrading the reputation of the place in the
eyes of tourists that come from outside to visit. There is also a report issued in public that many
cafes and lounges in place does not have permission from The Pollution Control board to operate
in the area which is mandatory. The utter lack of solid and liquid waste management system has
caused high pollution in the area which is taking a huge environmental toll on the village as well.