Its all in their hands now

BANGALORE: Lakshmi Kanthaswamy Medicinal Eco-Park near 12B bus stop in Padmanabhanagar seems to have earned itself a reputation much like the two sides of a coin — a positive and a negative.While opinions may vary from person to person, the temple trustees who take care of the park are overjoyed by the High Court’s decision of allowing the park to be left as it is.The park was recently in the limelight due to the ‘development’ battle between, the trustees and the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike.According to Dr Lalithamma, one of the trustees, last April, the Palike landed up outside the park and began constructing a new boundary wall and also revealed its plans of creating a high-tech park in its place.Desperate to save the park, the trustees managed to obtain a stay order in July 2010.However, the Palike still went ahead and broke the existing revetment to build a new wall.In the process, it reduced four 15-yearold trees to stumps not taller than five feet.Built around a temple, the trustees began planting saplings with medicinal properties almost 30 years ago.“The plot originally was a revenue land.We approached the Jayanagar Housing Cooperative Society to develop the park.Since we wanted to develop the land for public service, we were given the green signal to proceed,” recalled Dr Lalithamma, an environmentalist who has been taking care of the park since its inception.Spread across almost an acre, the park boasts of 118 varieties of special plants known to possess healing properties.After 3,000 lorries of red soil, sweat and blood of 11 worker who worked for over a year and a half and lakhs of money spent, the barren land finally began shaping up as an eco-park.“We have kept the park simple with a stone pathway and a few benches,” said Lalithamma.Intriguingly, according to the doctor, they never had to worry about water because, they invested in rain water harvesting.“The revetment was specially constructed and matched the topography of the hillock.We had built 16 trenches of varying lengths that run eight feet deep.These trenches are filled with boulders to aid water percolation.The pavement too was laid without cement,” she revealed.She asserted that the park is beneficial in more than one way.“The air is potent with oxygen and the aromas of trees like Tulsi and Jasmine.The 1,000 feet of stone pavement provides acupressure therapy,” she said.“I go for my morning walks here.Not only does it have all the facilities for a good walk, I also feel good and healthy every time I visit it,” said PN Zutshi, a resident of Padmanabhanagar.After presenting numerous documents and evidence to the High Court, Lalithamma said she was grateful that the law finally saw her attempts as a measure to save what has been nurtured for 30 years.According to the memo dated August 26, 2011, the Karnataka Bio-Diversity Board has taken a decision to preserve the park as a hertiage site.However, it also contradicts her claims of the Palike’s desire to convert the existing park into a conventional high-tech park.According to the final verdict, both parties are directed to maintain status quo, as it exists today, with a liberty to take any further action that may be called for, after concurrence of the Karnataka Bio-Diversity Board.