While discussing Delhi’s “corona sky,” Hindustan Times columnist Mayank Austen Soofi brings light to what sets Sunder Nursery apart from the architecture of the city’s other historical garden sites like Lodhi Garden, which has bigger monuments and stately trees hiding the sky.

“Gigantic trees also stand in Sunder Nursery, but here their arrangement is almost geometrical, leaving out vast open spaces for you to cherish the sky in all its infinite majesty,” Soofi writes.

The 16th century heritage park complex formerly known as Azim Bagh, was established as Sunder Nursery during British rule in India as an experimental repository for breeding trees and plants, and testing which species could thrive in Delhi’s harsh climate. 

Over the past decade, a “traditional Indian concept of congruency between nature, garden and utility,” is being used to restore the nursery for environmental conservation and public recreation through the Nizamuddin Urban Renewal Initiative.

“In some spots, depending upon the light, the sky gets so overwhelming that you feel it might fall down on the grass at any moment," Soofi writes.

One of the landscape designs based on the initiative's three frameworks is a human-created low-lying lake, which serves to attract birds in rivulet zones, and as a holding tank for irrigation.

Another one, the “Central Axis,” is described as a reimagination of Mughal garden layouts and Persian carpet garden patterns, comprising water channels, flower beds, and sandstone seating, with one end stretching from Humayun’s Tomb’s entrance plaza.

Although pollution levels towards the end of this year worsened, there were still moments where the sky had a warmth complementing the nursery's environment-conservation theme, before the air quality dipped further.