I
have already written about one of the more significant statements of Murati
Bapu, the Hindu religious leader who goes about giving religious and ethical discourses
drawn mainly from Hindu epics. In another of his well-attended talks he was
reported to have said that needless felling of trees is like killing a “sadhu”
(a saint or an ascetic). He said that in the epic “Ram Charit Manas” saints
have been said to be like trees, rivers, hills, etc. because, basically, they
are benevolent, charitable, munificent and kind. They only do good to everybody
and to everything in the physical world. They do not take away anything from anybody and being beneficent they only
hand out means of sustenance to the world. That is why he says that cutting
down a tree is like killing something which is beneficial to us or something
which is a do-gooder for everybody.
It
seems, he had chosen just about the right venue for talking about felling of
trees. Here in Bhopal the government and its agencies like the municipal corporation
are ‘axe-happy’ in the same manner as people can sometimes be trigger-happy. On
the slightest provocation they will go and bring down trees. They hardly ever
think of saving a tree. Bhopal has lost enormous number of trees during the
last decade or so.
Thousands
of trees in the city were felled for the BRTS corridor which, as expected, has
not lived up to its declared intentions of easing out the traffic mess in the
city. Trees were felled for laying the Narmada pipeline to improve the water
supply in the town. This too has not lived up to its announced objective as
only recently it was in the news that despite water being brought all the way
from Narmada some areas of the city still suffer from water shortages. Then for
the laying of the third railway track between Bina and Bhopal a few more
thousand trees in and around the city were cut down. A news item recently said
that about 800 more trees are needed to be eliminated before completion of the
project. Then, of course, there are usual felling of trees for widening of city
roads and limitless urban expansion that the city has witnessed. During
implementation of these projects no one ever thought of saving even the trees
that could well stand wherever they were or relocating those which were decades
old with a huge canopy hosting myriad species.
No
wonder, a recent news report came out with a startling fact. It said that
Bhopal’s green cover has shrunk from 66% to 22% in two decades. This discovery
has been made as a result of a study undertaken by the reputed institution, the
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (IISc), and the newspaper called its
findings “Bhopal’s dark truth”. The study predicts that by 2018 the tree cover
will shrink to 11% of the city’s area and by 2030 it will be a mere 4.10%. The
study was reported to have been conducted by satellite borne sensors which
compared images over decades and modelled past and future growth to determine
rate of growth of urbanization in cities.
These
figures prove that the city has progressively been denuded of trees by
unplanned urbanization. Expansion of the city has taken its toll on the
surrounding green hills and neighbouring farmlands. The city, in the process,
lost its equable climate that was most suited for elders like yours truly. It
was devoid of the extremes of temperatures, both in summers and in winters.
While in summers it would not be as hot as, say, Gwalior; during winters it
would not be as severely cold as Delhi. All that has been lost because of the
mindless felling of trees in the pursuit of expansion and development. Our own
home-based environmentalist, Subhash C, Pandey says “If I relate my study of rise in temperature to 8% in 12 years where the
parametres were the same” the predicted shrinkage in tree cover to 11% “though
shocking, is very much possible”.
This
catastrophic situation has come about because of the environmental illiteracy
of the local politicians and the bureaucracy, utter lack of foresight and the
proclivity among them to make a quick buck by opening up the city for a
construction spree. While colonies after new colonies were being sanctioned
nobody seems to have bothered to insist on the builders to save the trees and plant
trees around the built-up areas to compensate for the lost greenery. In the
government there was only one Late Mahesh Buch who ‘greened’ the entire Arera Hill
after the 74 Bungalows were built. Others never seemed to have bothered though
they went on sanctioning opening up of more and more areas in the surrounding hills,
farmlands and valleys for construction. The government must have had all the
information about the disaster the town would face in the wake of unrestrained
colonization of virgin hills and green valleys. It has an environmental think
tank in the shape of Environmental Planning and Coordination Organisation
(EPCO) and yet none seemed to have bothered.
The
findings of the Indian Institute of Science cannot be taken lightly. After all,
many of the effects of tree-loss in a massive scale are already perceptible.
The city is already facing extreme heat in summers and the last winter too was
extraordinary. But the government seems to be unconcerned. The IIsc report came
out in the last week of last March but so far there has been no reaction. No one expects any reaction from the local
Municipal Corporation which is always ready with axes in the hands of its
employees but are not worried or aware of the consequences of their actions. But
the environmental department of the government should have reacted and at least
said that the report would be examined for action. The government departments
are, however, notorious for allowing various important reports pending for long
periods. The example of the report of the Centre for Environment Planning and
Technology (CEPT) is already before the people of the city. Nothing can really
move the government. So, quite evidently it is business as usual – preemptive
steps, if any, can wait till the city becomes an arid desert.
Surely,
everybody in the government knows the consequences of shrinking tree cover. Not
only there will be rise in temperature, there will also be water shortages.
Even the ground water levels are likely to dip to precarious levels due to
absence of trees. The rise in demand for energy would increase atmospheric
pollution. And then the scourge of air pollution will take over with dry dust
being freely blown around by the breeze carrying pm10 and pm2.5 right into the
lungs of the citizens.
Murari
Bapu may not have mentioned them but there are immense benefits that the trees
bestow on humanity. An internet site has enumerated top 22 benefits of a tree
some of the important ones being : trees clean air, they provide oxygen, trees
conserve energy, they also cool the streets and the city, trees save water and
prevent water pollution, they help prevent soil erosion, they provide a canopy
and habitat for wildlife and, above all, they combat climate change.
One
wonders whether those in the government would pay heed and act on what the IISc
study revealed and stop felling of trees by enacting a law and plant as many
trees as possible. The chief minister had announced two years back that a crore
of trees would be planted in the city. Nobody knows whether that announcement
was really followed up by action. This year he has raised the number to two
crores to be planted along the banks of Narmada. Perhaps that too will also
remain as an announcement.
In
the absence of any official action one is inclined to think that only a strong
civil society movement can force the government to take remedial action. One
recalls the movement 2015 which forced the government to change the site for
the proposed smart city. The movement was centred around cutting down of the
green cover of Shivaji Nagar. Some such movement would make the government to
see reason.
*Photo from tnternet of a magnanimous tree
15th April 2017
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