Khatu Shyam temple: An ethereal world amid greenery
Transformation of the decades-old temple began in 2008 and it is now surrounded by gardens on all sides with trees, flowering plants and shrubs
LUCKNOW: If you search for Khatu Shyam temple on Google Maps, you will see several reviews, apart from the location, pictures, distance and directions. One such review says: ‘Peaceful place with a lot of greenery around’.
Reaching the temple is easy for a first-time visitor by merely searching the place by its name (as it is quite popular) and location (right opposite the Laxman Mela ground on the bank of river Gomti. But, on reaching the location, it takes some time to spot the temple because it is surrounded by trees on all sides.
The temple, dedicated to Khatu Shyam (or Barbarika), a character in the epic Mahabharata, is decades old. But its ‘green transformation’ began in 2008.
The campus also has an overhead covered area to accommodate a large congregation in front of the temple. Then there is a vast paved and open-air front area.
This entire temple and front area are surrounded by vatikas (gardens) on all sides. These comprise manicured lawns with over a hundred large and medium-height trees and flowering & medicinal shrubs.
“We have guava, banana, sandalwood, Rudraksh, peepal, and several other trees. Deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma is the temple’s patron. The temple committee, under his guidance, when was Lucknow mayor in 2008, began transforming the temple into its present well organised and green state,” said Prashant Dalmia, treasurer of the temple committee and a chartered accountant.
“We have a team of gardeners to take care of the lawns. The temple premises has a gaushala (cow shed) and it gives a lot of manure. We have a fish pond too. The small resting lawn and the children’s play area are full of greenery,” said Dalmia.
The temple’s chief priest, Pandit Kamal Kishore Shukla, said: “We also grow vegetables here as I reside on the premises.”
Dalmia said most of the trees were planted over the years since 2008. He says greenery and cleanliness were important as they made the atmosphere ‘paawan’ (ethereal).
After the Gomti River Front project’s implementation, the green quotient of the temple and surrounding area went up with green landscaping.
The temple is open from 5am to 1pm and then from 4pm to 10pm every day.