Viewed by many just as an entry point to northern India, I feel Delhi is given a rather short shrift.
With 25 million people calling Delhi home it is the world’s fourth most populous city – a sprawling giant continuously inhabited since the 6th century BC. It is the world’s most polluted city but ever-proud Delhiites are very keen to point out how green it is. And they are right.
There are lots of parks in Delhi where monkeys swing from the trees, joggers jog, and tourists contort themselves into yoga poses. If you venture further out you can even find forest. The Delhi Ridge, an extension of the ancient Aravalli Hills, is known as the lungs of the city and helps protect Delhi from the furnace-like blasts of wind that roll in from Rajasthan’s deserts.
Few people know that The Ridge, as it is known locally, is also responsible for earning Delhi the tag of the World’s Second most bird-rich Capital city beaten only by Kenya’s Nairobi. Not bad for a city famed for smog cover that at times almost entirely obscures its many architectural gems.
