On the 4th nigh of Farvardin 1403 (24th March 2024), in the middle of Nowrooz holidays, the Nowshahr municipality, without obtaining a permit, violated the agreement that was signed last year between the National Research Institute of Forests and Pastures, and Nowshahr municipality, and destroyed more than 200 meters of the northern wall of the botanical garden and levelled 1,500 sqm of it with loader and bulldozers.
According to ISNA, Nowshahr Botanical Garden, one of the oldest botanical gardens in Iran, famous as ecology garden, was founded more than 90 years ago on a land of more than 35 hectares. This treasure, which was registered as a natural work in the list of national monuments of Iran in 2005, is the second and oldest ecological garden in Iran and the Middle East and one of the most critical genetic bases of rare trees and plant species.
Various mayors had pursued the issue of retreating this garden for the past years with the aim of urban development until last year after the governor of Mazandaran appointed the new mayor of Nowshahr when the pursuits took on a more serious tone.
Finally, an agreement between the Research Institute of Forests and Pastures of the country and Nowshahr municipality was concluded, with several clauses, based on which Nowshahr Municipality is obliged to pay for the received land, facilities and some construction activities such as asphalting part of the streets, building herbarium buildings and providing information and guarding, construction of sidewalks around the pond, reconstruction of some passages and some other things.
The destruction of a part of the wall of the Nowshahr Botanical Garden took place in a situation where, based on the agreement, the municipality was allowed to destroy and withdraw from the northern wall of the garden only against the completion of certain construction activities in this garden. While only a small percentage of these commitments were implemented incompletely and non-transparently, the municipality could only fulfil up to 70% of its obligations.
According to one of the members of the garden’s academic staff, who was present at the scene of the incident, the mayor of Nowshahr personally started destroying the wall, and later left rest of the work for his employees to finish.
According to this person, who was present and, in the picture, necessary coordination with the police department had been done beforehand, so that in the process of demolition, repeated phone calls to the public prosecutor and some authorities of the City remained fruitless.
On the other hand, the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts of the province, who, for various reasons, had issued a written opposition to do any destruction and/or construction activities in Nowshahr botanical garden, and had previous filed a complaint against the head of the botanical gardens, without any valid reason, has remained silent during this incident.
The question is, on basis of which immunity, during the Nowrooz holidays, and without obtaining a permit, and by violating the written agreement, have they taken such an illegal action on a nationally registered work?
The mayor of Nowshahr announced that the destruction of a part of the wall on the northern side of the botanical garden was for the well-being of the citizens and to open the dead end of the road leading to a bridge. This act was done legally and with the consent of the public prosecutor and government of Nowshahr.
In this regard, the head of the Research Institute of Forests and Ranges of the country, while referring to the destruction of the Nowshahr Botanical Garden, said: “There was supposed to be a retreat in this garden in exchange for the concessions and measures taken by the municipality for the Nowshahr Botanical Garden, but the municipality did not fulfil its agreements, and at night without coordination, He destroyed this garden.”
In an interview with ISNA, Ali Alizad Aliabadi stated that Nowshahr Ecology Garden or Nowshahr Botanical Garden is one of the seven satellite gardens of the Forest and Pasture Research Institute and said: “The research institute owns the national botanical gardens of Iran, located in Tehran, and 6 satellite gardens in different cities. Nowshahr botanical garden is the oldest botanical garden in Iran, and it is even older than the National Botanical Garden of Iran.
He added: Due to the fact that this garden was constructed long ago, its walls and the space were wide and big, but now that the city has expanded, boulevards have been built, and the streets have been widened, the area of the garden has created restrictions on the street, and therefore the withdrawal had to be done finally.
Head of the country’s forests and pastures research institute continued: Last year, Nowshahr municipality approached us and announced that changes should be made. After several meetings with them, we finally reached an understanding that in exchange for the withdrawal, the municipality should also take measures inside the garden so that the garden has its past prosperity and its activities continue. Finally, the memorandum of understanding was signed, and it was decided to take action accordingly.
According to him, first, construction activities and municipal concessions were to be done in the garden and then the withdrawal would take place.
He added, “Unfortunately, without fulfilling the municipality’s promises and fully implementing the provisions of the agreement, the municipality destroyed the wall with a loader and bulldozer in the middle of the night during the Nowruz holidays and damaged the fences without coordinating with us.” Fences that were supposed to be intact and used elsewhere were damaged.
This official continued: “Unfortunately, such an action took us by surrise. How could the mayor do such a crude and ambiguous thing in front of the people, and this on a holiday in the middle of the night?” We are not against withdrawal, but some conditions were clarified in the agreement. They had to be implemented first, and then the wall would be destroyed.
Aliabadi stated that this act has created suspicions about whether the municipality intends to implement the agreement it signed, and added: “Our concern is that they may want to avoid implementation of the agreement because, if not, there was not other justification to do such a thing without coordination.”
He also added that such events should be coordinated with the governor of the province. The question that came to us was whether the governor was involved in such a move. Did he agree with this action?
The head of the Forestry and Pasture Research Institute of the country pointed out that it would have been better if this withdrawal was made in coordination with the Forestry and Pasture Research Institute so that the management of the garden would not be called into question, he said: We are a government institution, and the municipality is also a government institution. When the province has a senior supervisor, and all the institutions under the province can resolve such simple issues in a short and simple meeting with the tact and management of the governor, why should this happen?
According to him, this garden has many ideals, among which research, educational, cultural and social works can be mentioned. In the cultural and social sphere, one of the activities is tourism, recreation and visiting the garden. Unique road construction should be done in this garden; Special roads should be constructed in this garden, and some buildings should be renovated. Create an information center for visitors. Form a guard room. Renovate the office building. The municipality accepted everything and promised to do it, but unfortunately, it suddenly did such an unacceptable thing.
Alizadeh Aliabadi stated that the garden has been registered as a cultural heritage and is protected by the cultural heritage of the province, adding: “Even they believe that the wall should not be destroyed even if the municipality requires it, because this place is a cultural heritage.”
He went on to say: I wish the city officials had handled this matter in a better way. The solution is simple: understanding! We had nothing against the municipality, but what they did was sudden.
In the end, the head of the country’s forest and rangeland research institute said: the last solution would have been, with the intervention of the governor, a meeting would be held with senior managers of the botanical garden and the municipality, in which the governor would make the final decision, which we all have to follow. But now we are facing this illegal act, which we will definitely protest.
