for most old bengalureans jinke park evokes memories of a wooded expanse where deer would graze in peace one more lush parkland in a city famous for its greenerythen things changed unlike most stories of ben galuru the change started before liberalization and manmohan singh and it revolutions towards the end of the 1980s the deer were moved into the bannerghatta national park a few of them had died as a result of snakebite and translocation seemed to be the best option for themthen jinke park fell into neglect and disrepair the proximity of the park to the kempambudhi tank led to it getting flooded whenever the tank overflowed after rainsso the place was almost a swamp infested with rats and snakes says historian vemagal somashekar somashekar who lives in basavanagudi near the park says that this situation persisted until the mid1990sthat was when the then city mayor k chandrasekar began efforts to rejuvenate the place and turn it into a childrens park he sayswork began on chandrasekars plan in the late 1990s the land originally belonged to the forest department the bbmp acquired 17 acres of parkland from them drainage ditches as deep as 20 feet were dug under the park the first garden plants were introduced we had figures of sphinxes and unicorns and dinosaurs constructed specially for the place a glasshouse costing nearly rs 15 lakh was also set up says one senior politician associated with the park constructionthe park was operational by 2000 and the earlybird visitors from the neighbourhood would often land up to enjoy the breeze and watch the attractions coming upthe work was completed by 2004 after which it was to have been inaugurated by then chief minister sm krishna in late may 2004the park was never officially opened krishna resigned as cm of karnataka just days before he was to open the parkplans to formally inaugurate and revive the park as a memorial to the late dr rajkumar were made in 2007 a year after the death of the kannada icon a bust of dr rajkumar along with those of jnanpith award winners from karnataka was put up that year but ensured that the rededication and formal inauguration of the park never took place says a form e r bbmp official associated with the parksoon the facility came to be known as dr rajkumar park even though bbmp records still show it as kempambudhi park or the deer parktoday the park is still there again a face of neglect the vegetation where it has not run wild is unkempt and scraggly and on a siding a small train stands on rusting tracks dusty with disuse its another re minder of the plans that the city once had in 2003 a team vis ited the ramoji film city in hyderabad and or dered a toy train similar to the one there for the park at a total cost of rs 125 crore including rs 70 lakh for the engine the toy