If cities have only factories, mills, houses, hospitals, godowns, schools and big hotels, I don’t think any city will survive in its real sense. Unfortunately, in the name of development, huge structures have been erected all over at all times in the past five decades leading to warmer climate in cities
I have always felt that for any policymaker or an urban planner it is perhaps the toughest decision to keep a large chunk of any land in a city, open for posterity. Be it for a garden, community’s use or for a playground! Allowing construction of a building or giving permissions for erecting structures such as hospital, college or a community residential building is much easier than maintaining the status quo of open space in a city for decades together.
Traditional Indian cities and towns have always had green open spaces, adequate number of playgrounds, if not large modern stadia, community open space, be it the grazing land, city forest or a big temple premises or some beautiful small gardens in almost every residential colony. The British-time Town Halls invariably had open spaces around the nicely built structures in every city. In most of the schools and colleges-and they were government schools-it was almost mandatory to have a football field, large open play fields, some of which were dotted by verdant tree cover. My government school, the Bal Vinay Mandir, Indore, had such a luxury then, way back in the 60s and through the 90s. Its open ground has now shrunk but it’s still intact, largely. The sight of some of the old trees, including the bottle brush, is quite fresh in my mind. Indore, like many other cities, has grown exponentially! But has the vision also broadened to match our forefathers’? I would say an emphatic no!
Today, sadly, open spaces have become very scarce and thus costly, thanks to faulty urban planning and unprecedented pressure on land. Most of the open grounds are being eyed by ‘land sharks’. Given that the urban population is continuously on the rise, the importance of open spaces has grown multi-fold. And hence there is a need for clear cut policy in every state for keeping open spaces reserved. Even after independence, many states had pasture lands kept free as charnoi bhoomi (grazing land) for village cattle to graze on. With growing urbanisation, already more than 52 per cent people are living in cities as villages are getting emptied due to the lop-sided approach of neglecting rural development over urban development. The burgeoning population of cities is the direct result of lack of various amenities in villages, including health care, education and jobs. A few years ago a former chief minister of Maharashtra had told me that Mumbai got daily three trainloads of job-searching crowd from the then BIMARU states of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and UP and only one train would take back the unemployed youths. Meaning, Mumbai was receiving an influx of thousands of people daily into the megacity for several years without bothering about its carrying capacity.
Even as I was writing this piece, India’s financial capital was underwater, yet again. Extra heavy rains not only paralysed public life of Mumbai at once, the deluge also took lives of many citizens. The BMC Commissioner, Pravin Pardeshi, candidly admitted that the stormwater drains had been rendered completely ineffective due to encroachments, choking of nullahs when unexpectedly heavy rain fall happened in just three days of June and July. He also admitted that since almost entire Mumbai has been paved off (tar roads, buildings, cemented roads and squares) no water percolation was possible. Entire water on the Mumbai roads had to be pumped out manually and released into rivers and the Arabian Sea. In effect, he was (importantly) complaining of no open spaces having been left to absorb water during the rainy season. Did that happen overnight? I don’t think the readers have forgotten the July 26, 2005 cloud burst and the Mithi River flooding that had killed hundreds of citizens over the next few days. Unfortunately, each year after that tragedy Mumbai drowned again much to the great inconvenience of lakhs of commuters of the sprawling coastal city. If we have to trust what the BMC Commissioner has said in a widely televised interview on June 2, 2019, clearly the last 14 years have not changed much in that city. On the contrary, population, encroachments, and the BMC budget have all grown manifold! Not the open spaces.
But then why blame Mumbai alone? Take the example Bengaluru: In 1925, 80 per cent land of the southern city was open. By 1960, it came down to 17.20 per cent and 23 years later, in 1983 it was just about 10 per cent and by 2020 it would be as less as 7-7.50 per cent. The same is the case with the national capital where in and around the famous Lutyens Bungalow Zone of Central Delhi, there are some green spaces and gardens such as Lodhi Garden and open vistas around the Janpath, India Gate and Vijay Chowk and to some extent the Chanakyapuri area. New areas are completely devoid of the required open spaces. Gurugram and NOIDA, the two counter magnet cities created to reduce pressures on Delhi, have not only proved counterproductive, they too have not much planned for open spaces. In fact, near Gurugram in Haryana, the centuries old Aravalli mountain range is under tremendous pressure from real estate developers and political lot.
Globally speaking, Moscow is one city which has highest 54 per cent open spaces, followed by smaller country-state Singapore at 47 per cent and then Sydney at 46 per cent as per a study conducted a few years ago. But the Sydney state administration is still not content with it and has undertaken green space expansion programme worth $150 million. Mumbai, contrastingly has a meagre 2.5 per cent open space which can be seen either at Shivaji Nagar in Dadar or in Worli and Churchgate areas where there are some sports grounds including the Brabourne and Wankhede Stadia and the Race Course. Small colony gardens are of course there besides the Sanjay Gandhi National Park in Borivali. Those who have visited Shanghai and Beijing, they would easily tell us the difference. While Beijing has sure greenery, Shanghai has only sky scrapers! So that raises the questions what are open spaces and what is their use in the urban context?
Clearly, in the present times when the world is battling climate change, open spaces, especially green lungs, help in carbon sequestration. World over the open or green spaces have either been developed for recreation or for their ecological importance or for aesthetic value. Any well planned large garden (iconic Hyde Park in London or Central Park in New York or Lodhi Garden in New Delhi) in the world has served one or all of three purposes mentioned above. Problem with India is of ever growing population and hence there is an unprecedented pressure on land. Poverty is another bane. But cities have to be habitable and they can be so only with a fair share of open spaces. A few years ago, different planners had set out different parameters such as 20-40 sq mts per capita open space or something like that. In spite of this if the cities have to be really smart, it would not be possible without giving due importance to environment. I believe more than the aesthetic value, open spaces provide us fresh air and a change from the monotonous life style. With most cities going vertical in its growth and skyscrapers dominating the sky line, there is an urgent need for children, women and elders to go out for games and exercises in the morning and evening. Gardens extend invaluable ecological services for the society, the importance of which is far more than the built environment. Gardens are also important for societal bonds through human interactions and mutual exchanges-in other words open spaces also have cultural importance attached to them. They cannot be and must not be seen as land parcels with high ticket band attached to it.
If cities have only factories, mills, houses, hospitals, godowns, schools and big hotels, I don’t think any city will survive in its real sense. Unfortunately, in the name of development, huge structures have been erected all over at all times in the past five decades leading to warmer climate in cities. I see a nexus of profiteers and politicians in it at
most places.
Considering all this I am of the strong opinion that it’s time the central government and state governments brought out a clear policy, a Central Act or strict state government rules for preserving clearly earmarked precious open land at a number of places in each city and town, keeping in view needs of water percolation, ecology and societal needs. It’s like this: when ground water table started going down, all municipal bodies made stricter rules for roof top rain water harvesting systems for each building. Many years ago, I had gone to Dubai and had experienced the high temperatures at night. Much later I realised that the tiny country had only 2 per cent open land. Of, course they built a golf course after converting salt water from the ocean into potable water two decades ago but the gulf country remains a very hot region.
If we have to save Indian cities in times of climate change challenges, massive efforts are required to create open spaces for various advantages that have been listed above. Mumbai experience also strongly suggests that open spaces can also save lives by allowing water to go away along its natural way.