Sunder Nursery

Sunder Nursery with its formal landscaped gardens and informal biodiversity zone, provides for a wholesome and enriching experience to its visitors.

Since its opening in February 2018, the Park has attracted awards and recognition for its sensitively planned landscape and the well-managed model of visitor experience. The Park is home to six UNESCO World Heritage monuments, viz., Sunder Burj, Sunderwala Mahal, Lakkarwala Burj, Mirza Muzaffar Hussain’s Mausoleum, Chota Batashewala, and Mughal Mausoleum. The conservation and landscape restoration of the monuments and the Park have been undertaken by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) as part of the Nizamuddin Urban Renewal Initiative, which has generated not only significant visitor interest, but also appreciation from organizations like UNESCO and Outlook, amongst others.

“The project showcases technical excellence in built-heritage restoration alongside a commitment to socio economic development, long a hallmark of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture.
At the same time, it pays equal attention to ecological restoration, thus underscoring the message that heritage conservation is beyond monuments and is only truly sustainable when essential linkages between nature and culture are profoundly understood and nurtured.”
UNESCO Special Recognition for Sustainable Development

(Left) Hon’ble Prime Minister, Mr Narendra Modi with Mr. Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the President of the Federal Republic of Germany at Sunder Nursery during his official visit in March 2018.

UNESCO’s Special Recognition for Sustainable Development

Sunder Nursery was awarded for its transformative impact in turning a barren site into an urban oasis in the heart of New Delhi. It showcases technical excellence in built-heritage restoration alongside a commitment to socio economic development, long a hallmark of AKTC.

UNESCO’s Award of Excellence

Sunder Nursery ensemble sets a new bar for heritage restoration and serves as a catalytic model for public-private partnerships in India. World-class conservation combining the latest technology with rich building craft traditions reinstated severely dilapidated Mughal tombs, decorative works

UNESCO’s AWARD for Excellence

Using a Historic Urban Landscape approach, the team has restored the integrity of the complex, which had been previously broken up by unsympathetic roads and construction in recent decades. The vitality of Sunder Nursery, which is partly included in the World Heritage Site of Humayun’s Tomb, is a testament to the project team’s multi-faceted approach to heritage conservation and establishes a paradigm for connecting physical fabric to ecology and societal well-being.

World’s Greatest Places in 2018 Times Magazine

Between the pollution and the crowds, it’s hard to get away in New Delhi. But now the Indian capital offers a respite: the city’s first arboretum. Unveiled in February, the 90-acre complex is a horticultural haven with restored Mughal-era monuments and natural water features.

Outlook Award

The Outlook Traveller Awards are the benchmark of quality in the travel and tourism industry and felicitate the best of the best each year. Plenty of new and innovative tourism initiatives launch every year. This year's winner—Sunder Nursery Park, by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture—truly stands out.

Great Gardens of the World

Gardens are a living form of art, which condenses time and space. From ancient times to contemporary gardens, from castles to roof terrace, here is a selection of the most inspiring places in the world. Where love for art meets love for nature.

World Responsible Tourism Awards 2020:

Followed by the ‘Overall Winner’ at the 2020 India Responsible Tourism award to the project earlier Aga Khan Trust for Culture (India) receives the highest, ‘Highly Commended’ recognition for efforts in the Humayun’s Tomb - Nizamuddin area at the London awards ceremony.

Best Social Impact Project GOLD- Nizamuddin Urban Renewal Initiative
The judges were very impressed by this initiative of the Aga Khan Trust Culture (AKTC) in Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti, a compact, self-contained urban settlement that is home to 18,000 people. It receives thousands of visitors daily to the shrine of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya, the revered 13th century Sufi saint after whom the area is named. The area has many heritage sites, ten of them of national importance, and is rich in cultural traditions, like Qawwali music, poetry, food and rituals that have defined both Hindustani culture and Sufism. This public-private initiative led by the AKTC with the South Delhi Municipal Corporation, the Archaeological Survey of India and the Central Public Works Department demonstrates admirably how the urban renewal of a historic city can improve the quality of life for residents and meet tourism objectives.

In the News

Lost Spring, Autumn Sonata

Sunder Nursery: A garden, an escape, and a mirror to Delhi

Delhi's Sunder Nursery Wins UNESCO Award

‘Setting a new bar’

Delhi's Sunder Nursery Chosen For 2 UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards For Conservation

Delhiites Have Found Paradise In Sunder Nursery

Back to Nature

10 years on, Sunder Nursery to debut as a heritage park

Sunder Nursery gives Delhi a beautifully restored green space – and a template for heritage

Among 100 of world’s best places

Visiting the poets’ park

UNESCO’s Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation

Sunder Nursery was awarded the Award for Excellence at the 2020 UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awardsfor Cultural Heritage Conservation. The awards, which was established in 2000, recognizes projects that have demonstrated a conservation approach that understands the significance of a place and displays a significant social and policy impact at the local, national and regional levels.
Sunder nursery was also awarded the Special Recognition for Sustainable Development for its “transformative impact in turning a barren site into an urban oasis in the heart of New Delhi

Outlook Award for Indian Responsible Tourism

Outlook Group’s Indian Responsible Tourism Awards (IRTA) awarded the Nizamuddin UrbanRenewal Initiative Project Gold for best Social Impact project and overall winner for 2020 - across all categories.
World Responsible Tourism Awards 2020

Followed by the ‘Overall Winner’ at the 2020 India Responsible Tourism award to the project earlier Aga Khan Trust for Culture (India) receives the highest, ‘Highly Commended’ recognition for efforts in the Humayun’s Tomb - Nizamuddin area at the London awards ceremony.

Explore More

A site with breath-taking monuments, paradise gardens and biodiversity, Sunder Nursery was listed amongst the 100 WORLD’S GREATEST PLACES of 2018 by TIME Magazine.

Awards & Recognitions