India, June 17 -- For generations of children growing up in Shalimar Bagh's BW Block, the neighbourhood park was more than just an open patch of land. It was where cricket matches stretched through summer evenings, football games continued until darkness making the ball impossible to see, and games of hide-and-seek turned strangers into friends. Residents who grew up in the area recall spending entire afternoons there, returning home only when parents called them back.

The park, they say, watched children grow into adults. For the last one month, the same ground has been turned into a make-shift parking lot.

The gate remains permanently open to allow vehicles to enter and exit. In several places, the grass has all but disappeared under ...