LAHORE, May 12: The gardens at Lahore’s Mughal monuments which spread over 164 acres of land are rapidly decaying because of neglect and lack of gardeners and caretakers.

The garden area of the Lahore Fort is 37 acres, Chauburji one acre, Shalamar Gardens 40 acres, Gutbuddin Aibak’s tomb 1,600 sqft and Shahdara monuments —- Akbari Serai, Jehangir’s tomb, Noor Jehan’s tomb and Asif Jah’s tomb —- 86 acres.

The number of gardeners and caretakers for these gardens is 76 which the archaeology department officials say is too thin.

At least three gardeners are required for proper maintenance of gardens spread over one acre of land, according to an archaeologist, adding, about 400 more attendants are required for the upkeep of the Mughal monument gardens.

Archaeology Department (Northern Circle) Director Qasim Ali, says 147 more attendants will be enough for the gardens. He says about 20 vacancies of attendants are lying vacant because of the ban on recruitments.

He says the Parks and Hor-ticulture Authority (PHA) annually spends Rs120,000 on every acre of gardens under its jurisdiction whereas his department’s annual budget for the 40-acre Shalamar Gardens is Rs25,000.

There are only six sanitation workers to lift two to four ton waste matter which is daily accumulated in the Lahore Fort.

The garden area of the Lahore Fort has 23 attendants, the Shalamar Gardens 21 and Shahdara Monuments 32. There is no attendant for Gutbuddin Aibak’s Tomb and Chauburji.

Lahore has around 40 monuments which are looked after by a 370-member staff of the federal archaeology department.

Many of these monuments are without even a single attendant. These include Anarkali’s tomb in the Civil Secretariat, tomb of Sh-arfun Nisah in Begumpura, Dai Anga’s Mosque in Mozang, Ma-rriam Zimai Mosque at the rear of the Lahore Fort and Kos Minarets on the GT Road and many others. According to archaeology department officials, the 66-acre garden area of Hiran Minar in Sheikhupura has only two attendants.—Zulqernain Tahir