You do not need a gym membership or a drive to the hills to start your mornings well in Bhopal. On a rocky rise on the city’s north-east edge, at Laharpur, the Forest Department has grown a whole young forest — the Ecological Park, or City Forest. It is free to enter, it opens before sunrise, and it has red-earth running trails, a yoga lawn, sitting huts, a “constellation garden”, and views over the whole city. I have watched it grow for five years. This is my guide to it.
The short version
- Laharpur Ecological Park (City Forest / Nagar Van) is a free, forested morning-walk park on a hill in north-east Bhopal, run by the MP Forest Department.
- It has a red-murram jogging track (about half a kilometre a loop), long walking trails, and tarred internal roads through the trees.
- Facilities: a yoga lawn, an “Aarogyam” wellness point, sitting huts (machans), a children’s play area, an acupressure walkway, and toilets.
- There is a lovely Nakshatra Van (constellation garden) — trees planted by zodiac sign and birth-star.
- Opening times change with the season — roughly 5:00 am in summer, 5:30 am in winter. Best of all in the monsoon, when the hill is completely green.
A hill I watched turn green
I still remember this place as a bald hill. About five years ago, in the strange quiet after the COVID lockdowns, I first walked up here. It was mostly rock and dust — the Forest Department had begun planting, but the saplings were small and scattered, and you could see the bare stone through the grass. It looked like hard, hopeful work more than a park.
Come back in 2026 and you would not believe it is the same hill. The saplings are trees now. There is shade. There are birds. The rock is still there under everything — you meet it at the edges, grey and ancient — but it is wrapped in green. Watching a forest arrive, tree by tree, on ground you thought was finished, is a quietly moving thing. It is the whole reason I keep coming back.
A forest built on purpose. The wider hillside here — often called the Katara Hills / Laharpur ecological zone — is a huge stretch of rocky forest that the Forest Department has been greening since 2006, planting well over a lakh trees. One board inside records a single block: 20 hectares, 15,000 saplings, planted in 2019–20. The public park you walk in was developed as a Nagar Van (City Forest) and formally opened on 12 August 2018.
The green gate, and what it costs (nothing)
You reach the park through a friendly green-and-red arch that reads “M.P. Government — Ecological Park Laharpur — Forest Division Bhopal.” A little gate-house sits beside it, there is a bench or two, and a patch of ground where people leave their two-wheelers. Entry is free. There is no ticket counter, no fuss — you just walk in.
The one thing worth checking before you come is the timings, because they change with the season. They are painted right on the gate wall:
| Season | Morning | Evening |
|---|---|---|
| March – September (summer & monsoon) | 5:00 – 10:00 | 4:30 – 6:30 |
| October – February (winter) | 5:30 – 10:30 | 3:30 – 5:30 |
A few sensible rules are posted too, and they are worth respecting: no dogs or pets inside, no polythene, no fire or smoking, and carry your litter back out. It is a forest that people are still nursing into being — treat it gently.
The morning walk: red earth under green trees
Inside, the park opens into a network of paths. There are soft red-murram (red-earth) trails that crunch nicely underfoot, and smooth tarred lanes that loop through the plantation for those who like an even surface. Whichever you take, you are walking under trees, with the city out of sight and the morning cool on your face.
For the runners: a half-kilometre track
If you are training rather than strolling, this is the part you will love. There is a proper round running track — almost exactly half a kilometre a loop — so you can count your distance without a watch: two loops make a kilometre. I sometimes come here for my own long “mini-marathon” mornings, running loop after loop as the sun climbs. The mix of the measured track, the murram trails and the tar roads makes Laharpur a genuinely good place to train for a run inside the city — soft surfaces for easy days, a measured loop for intervals, and gentle slopes when you want them.
Two loops of the track make a kilometre. The trees keep count of the rest.
More than a path: what the park gives you
Laharpur is not just trails. The Forest Department has quietly built the things that make a park a place you stay in, not just pass through.
A yoga lawn and a wellness corner
Near the middle of the park there is a flat, well-kept green lawn — a real carpet of grass — where people spread mats for yoga and Surya Namaskar in the early light. Beside the entrance stands a small green building marked “Aarogyam” (a word that simply means good health), a quiet wellness point for the park.
Huts to sit in, and a play area for children
Scattered along the paths are covered sitting huts — little machans and gazebos — where you can catch your breath, wait out a shower, or just sit with a flask of tea and watch the morning. For families there is a small children’s play area with swings and slides, so the park works for the whole household, not just the walkers.
An acupressure walkway, and clean toilets
There is also an acupressure walkway — a short reflexology path of set stones that you walk barefoot to press the soles of your feet, a small free “therapy” many morning-walkers swear by. And, importantly for anyone planning a long visit, there are public toilets (“Sulabh Shauchalay”) inside the park — the kind of basic thing that decides whether a place is actually usable for older visitors and families.
The Nakshatra Van: a garden of birth-stars
My favourite corner is the Nakshatra Van — literally a “constellation forest.” Indian tradition links every zodiac sign (rashi) and every birth-star (nakshatra) to a particular tree. Here the Forest Department has planted them all and mapped them onto a big painted wheel chart: the twelve rashis and the twenty-seven nakshatras, each with its ruling planet and its tree, in Hindi and with botanical names.
So you can find your star’s tree and go stand under it. Aries’ neem, the peepal, the palash that flames orange in spring, the flowering bael, the humble banana — each belongs to someone’s birth. It turns a plantation into something personal, and it is a lovely thing to show children.
Cows on the trail, a city at your feet
This is a working, living edge of the city, not a manicured resort — and that is part of its charm. Cows and buffaloes wander in from the villages around and graze along the trails; you share the path with them, and they could not care less about your pace. Little painted rocks mark the junctions. And where the trees open near the top, the hill gives you a wide view over Bhopal — rooftops and green stretching into the monsoon haze.
The loop I walked
Here is the route I traced that Sunday, recorded on my watch: in through the gate at the bottom, up past the Ecological Park and the acupressure walkway, a long loop through the plantation and around the Nakshatra Van, and back down. It came to a comfortable few kilometres — you can make it as short or as long as you like by adding loops of the track.
Laharpur Ecological Park in numbers
- ~0.5 km — running-track loop (two loops make a kilometre)
- 5:00 am — opens in summer (5:30 am in winter)
- Free — entry, always
- 2018 — the City Forest formally opened (12 August)
Why your mornings belong here
Bhopal is a city of lakes and hills, and it is generous with places to walk. But Laharpur is special because it is a real forest you helped grow — public land that went from rock to canopy in a handful of years, kept free and open for anyone who shows up at dawn. You do not need equipment. You do not need money. You just need to arrive.
If you have been meaning to start morning walks, or to train for one of Bhopal’s marathons and runs, this is where to begin. Come once at 6 am, walk one loop under the trees, sit in a machan, find your birth-star’s tree — and see if the hill does not quietly become part of your week.
Make a good morning of it
- Come at first light (5:30–7:00 am) for the coolest air, the best birdsong and the softest light for photos.
- Go in the monsoon (July–September) for the greenest hill; winter mornings are crisp and clear too.
- Wear proper shoes — the murram is soft but uneven in places, and it can be slippery just after rain.
- Carry your own water, and count your run by the half-kilometre loop.
- Take a bag for your litter, skip the polythene, and leave the pets at home — those are the park’s rules.
Laharpur Ecological Park, Bhopal — visitor guide
| Where | Laharpur, on a hill in north-east Bhopal, near Sapphire Park City and Government Gyanodaya Residential School (Amrawad Khurd area). Part of the larger Katara Hills / Laharpur forest belt. |
| Entry | Free. A managed Forest Department park (City Forest / Nagar Van), not a ticketed attraction. Two-wheeler parking at the gate. |
| Timings | Mar–Sep: 5:00–10:00 am & 4:30–6:30 pm. Oct–Feb: 5:30–10:30 am & 3:30–5:30 pm. (Mornings are the main event.) |
| How to reach | A drive within the city from most of Bhopal, by car, auto or bike. It is an everyday local morning spot, not a day-trip. |
| Best time | Monsoon (July–September) for a fully green hill; winter (Oct–Feb) mornings for cool, clear air. Early morning above all. |
| What to do | Walk or jog the trails and half-km track, do yoga on the lawn, try the acupressure walkway, sit in a machan, visit the Nakshatra Van, take in the hilltop view. |
| Good to know | No pets, no polythene, no fire/smoking. Toilets on site. Cows/buffaloes roam the trails. Paths can be slippery just after rain — wear grippy shoes and mind children. |
One small tip. Make your first visit a slow one. Do a full easy loop to learn the paths and the huts, find the Nakshatra Van and the yoga lawn, and note where the toilets are. Then, on your next visit, you can arrive in the dark, run your loops, and be home before the city wakes.
Photo & video gallery
More from the Journal: for other easy escapes around Bhopal, read Kaliasot Dam — a monsoon evening by the water on the city’s green southern edge; or Van Vihar National Park, Bhopal’s lakeside walk among free-ranging wildlife.
Verified July 2026. Opening times, rules, the plantation figures (20 hectares / 15,000 saplings, 2019–20) and the 12 August 2018 opening are read directly from the on-site Forest Department boards we photographed. The wider Katara Hills / Laharpur “Ecological Park” context — a ~500-hectare rocky forest greened by the Forest Department since 2006, with well over a lakh trees planted — is from published Bhopal press (bhopalsamachar.com) and MP’s Nagar Van (City Forest) scheme (mpforest.gov.in); the park is managed by the General Forest Division, Bhopal (Forest Range Samardha). The route, timings and facilities are from our own GPS-tagged morning walk on 19 July 2026. All photographs and video © bhopali.in / Manish Mahadware. Please keep this young forest clean and safe — carry your litter back, follow the park’s rules, and let it keep growing.
