The granddaughter of Nek Chand, the creator of the Rock Garden in Chandigarh, has written an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the demolition of a wall at the park as part of a road-widening project.

In the letter, which she shared on X on Monday, Priyanka Saini said: “Prime Minister Modi Ji, when you invited former French President Francois Hollande to Chandigarh in 2016, you brought him to Rock Garden to showcase the beauty and creativity of India. You walked through its archways, knowing its worth, knowing its significance. The very gate you entered that day is now gone. Torn down to make way for a parking lot.”

The wall was knocked down on the intervening night of March 8 and 9 as part of a project aimed at decongesting the parking areas around Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Saini claimed that not only was the wall demolished but also the restoration material “discarded as waste”. She said old trees were being felled and rued the exclusion of her family and conservationists from the Rock Garden Society under the Chandigarh administration.

Saini demanded a halt on the demolition and the felling of trees and sought the use of recycled materials for restoration.

A road inspector, Nek Chand had built the garden from construction and domestic waste in a gorge near Sukhna Lake. He began work in 1957 and was able to keep it a secret till 1975 when the authorities caught wind of it. Public admiration for his creation prompted the government to decide against demolishing the unauthorised construction on forest land. An attempted demolition in 1989 was also stalled by protesters.

The garden, which includes sculptures and interlinked waterfalls, is spread over 16 hectares.

The demolition of the wall has triggered protests in Chandigarh. The Union Territory administration told the high court last week that the boundary wall wasn’t integral to the garden.

Author Gurmehar Kaur posted on X: “Nehru imagined Chandigarh as the face of a bold, independent India — rational, artistic, forward-looking. Nek Chand Ji’s Rock Garden added people’s poetry to that modernist plan. Destroying it is not just an
attack on art, but on India’s founding vision.”

A group called Saving Chandigarh called for a Chipko movement-like agitation to prevent demolition and tree-felling. The group claimed that no environmental-impact assessment was conducted before undertaking the road-construction project, which had deviated from the original plan.