Green for a clean city

KOCHI: ‘In search of greener pastures’ seems to be the buzzword in Kochi these days. But, unfortunately, the phrase does not have anything for the environmental chaps to cheer about. With the real estate boom going over the roof and the land area in the city becoming dearer by the day, everyone from town planners to building contractors to business houses to even ordinary citizens are now eying green. In its whatever-year-old journey, the city has already lost its major portion of mangroves, wetlands, shoreline and forests to cricket stadiums, star hotels, apartment complexes, mega malls and so on and so forth.“In the 1970s, the areas which now houses Panampilly Nagar, the KSRTC bus stand, the GCDA Office Building and Gandhi Nagar were all wetlands. Even the Chittoor-Vaduthala areas were wetlands which were later reclaimed and converted into residential plots. In many of these areas farming was done. Of late, the paddyfields on the suburbs, including those in Chottanikkara, Poothotta and Thrikkakara have all been acquired,” said M K Prasad, environmentalist and former Principal of Maharaja’s College.If one looks at the changing land patterns across the district into which the city is now expanding, the above list might seem conservative at best. Apart from the acquisition, unplanned development of the city has also adversely affected the growth of even the existing ones. The Mangalavanam is a primary example. Housed in one of the central locations in the city, the Mangalavanam bird sanctuary has been one of the major oxygen banks of the city. Over 200 migratory birds once visited the sanctuary, environmentalists say. But today owing to the increasing number of highrises that encircle the bird sanctuary, migratory birds find it difficult to get to the area resulting in a decline in their population. Many point out that the reason behind many of these land acquisitions in the city is a lack of understanding at various levels about the relevance of these green spaces for the citizens. “Many of these green belts are termed as waste lands. In fact these are not waste lands but wasted lands. When it comes to wetlands, the idea is that these areas are useless. When, in fact, their existence directly affects the quality of our drinking water, ground water percolation to our wells, flooding of our streets, temperature and humidity. This is apart from the thousands of  bacteria and micro-organisms, eels and other rare species that the wetlands harbour. In many countries, the wetlands are identified and conserved owing to their significance in various life cycles,” says environmentalist and lawyer Shivan Madathil.