[Urbanstudy] Butchering Trees and Pavements

[Ravi Agarwal]

Dear all,

As I spend another morning today trying to gather evidence of the 
trees , over 2500, marked for felling, I find I cannot shoot for more 
than some minutes. To see fully grown trees, of all shades and 
varieties, the type you cannot find in Delhi any more, some over 50 
years old marked for felling in yellow ink and numbers etched onto 
the tree trunks, is more than I can accept. Behind the construction 
boards of the HSBS ( High Capacity Bus Service) lies a trail of 
disaster. Uprooted giants of trees, some axed, some bleeding at the 
roots, mercilessly felled.

I know of no other city where 8 land higways criss cross it. ( From 
exisiting 6 lane this will now become 8 lane with the new service). 
Cleave it through and hack all that in its way. And a citenzery whcih 
is so quiet that it took a week to even get the media to do a story 
on it, and that also only via a concerned reporter. There is such 
silence and such uncertainty. The isolation which can be afforded 
through the window panes of cars, where we sit an decide if we can 
afford to raise our voices or maybe this will go away and no one will 
know. Like it never hapenned.

My friend the photo printer told me "dil dehal jaata hai jab mei us 
sarak per jaato hoon. Kitne bade and sunder per, aise hi kaat 
denge.?" My heart stops when I go on that road, will such big and 
majestic trees just be cut? Another friend who lives in Saket, 
refuses to look out of the taxi window, since it upsets her so much. 
Like it does me.

Whose consensus was sought. When this project was approved. Who made 
the decision that the road is needed. Who saw the traffic studies? 
Who justified it. Who executed it? How is the consensus made? How are 
such decisions taken? Someone's pet project. Someone well respected 
in the city. Someone who has always talked about pedisterisation and 
cycle ways. Now that very project stripping the city of trees, and 
pavements. For a high capacity bus!

In the last post I wrote about my inability to act. I wonder if it is 
the larger inability to act. How we seem to have said 'yes' without 
saying anything. How we maybe are caught up in our not wanting to 
neogotiate our little gains or how we justify them to ourselves (the 
city needs better transport! - read as "I like my car!"). There is 
not point thinking and pontificating if we are not prepared to 
participate in what is going on. The city has been changing as I 
write. By April end, the city would have lost over 3000 of its most 
glorious and old trees. Then we can get to work on time. I suppose - 
to a better future!

ravi agarwal




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