So sorry, Nek Chand Saini.

The Rock Garden created by the Punjab bureaucrat Nek Chand Saini is being partially demolished by the Chandigarh Union Territory administration following a directive from the Punjab and Haryana high court.

“So sorry, Nek Chand Saini, your precious creation is being demolished in part to make way for a road and parking of polluting vehicles. We, the people of Chandigarh and the Administration have let you down, that too in your birth centenary year. I have tears in my eyes,” wrote Manmohan Sarin, a Chandigarh resident, on his X (formerly Twitter) handle, after the demolition drive four days ago.

The garden, a major attraction for visitors to Chandigarh, was built by Saini, who started working on it in 1957 on his own collecting discarded material and turning it into art. Before the Chandigarh administration woke up to the existence of the garden in 1975, it had spread to 12 acres.

Currently the Rock Garden, which also houses a dolls museum, is spread over 40 acres of land.

“I am Nek Chand’s granddaughter and my family has spent decades shaping Chandigarh’s ecosystem, planting hundreds of trees and fostering sustainability. We are deeply disheartened by this demolition,” wrote Priyanka Saini on her X handle. “Government officials aren’t the only rightful guardians—the people & family must have a say.”

Environmentalist Samita Kaur said the Chandigarh administration should be ashamed of the demolition drive. “Tribute to Nek Chand on demolition of parts of Rock Garden in Chandigarh and trees massacred for road widening. I wonder whether our MP Manish Tiwari is aware while this is going on.”

When contacted by The Telegraph Online, the Congress Lok Sabha MP from Chandigarh, Tiwari said, “The demolition was being carried out on the orders of the Punjab and Haryana high court. It is a judicial order.”

On September 25 last year, the Punjab and Haryana high court while taking note of the south-east corner of the Rock Garden jutting out into the multi-level parking facility, observed that it was creating a bottleneck.

On a usual day around 3,000-4,000 vehicles visit the high court, which can accommodate around 600 vehicles in a multi-level parking facility, while another 200 vehicles can be parked at another lot near the Jan marg-Uttar Marg junction. Both are inadequate to meet the daily stream of vehicles.

The Chandigarh UT administration had informed the high court that the Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change had objected to a proposal to divert 0.0272 acre of forest land for road widening. The high court had directed the Chandigarh administration to come up with a feasible solution.

The Chandigarh UT sources said the road-widening plan was approved and the consent for conversion of the forest land to non-forest land received from the Centre.

“The Rock Garden and the area around it are not excluded from the Capitol Complex, which is a Unesco heritage site. The outer wall is not a part of the Garden designed by Nek Chand. It was built later to enclose the surrounding forest land,” said an official.