Scouting for green cover
Nature is known to regenerate and look after itself if left untouched by humans.
Delhi has made it to global headlines over the past half-decade. Unfortunately, it is for all the wrong reasons. Air pollution, worsening quality of life and increasing stress levels are reasons many families cite for migrating from India’s capital city, often within the country and sometimes even abroad. A sad commentary for a city that has been the seat of at least seven kingdoms and has continued uninterrupted as a human settlement for more almost 1,300 years at least, if not more. What has sustained the city for so long has been the two powerful natural features - the Aravallis and the Yamuna river, both of which are now gasping for breath besides the residents, of course.
Flawed governance, a colossal lack of vision, massive corruption and self-serving interests have led a rich natural eco-system to the brink of disintegration where people find themselves living in a city that takes their health away from them — a fundamental right that should come automatically. This collapse of urban governance is happening not just in Delhi but is also visible in the cities that surround it — Gurgaon, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Noida, Indirapuram and Meerut. If the environment in Delhi has to be set right, the herculean effort will have to be simultaneously initiated in the National Capital Region as well so that the residents can collectively benefit from such an integrated effort. Otherwise, the pollution combatting efforts will only be symptomatic.
Though the picture is far from rosy, there are things on the sidelines that remain positive. Delhi still remains one of the greenest urban conglomerations — the foliage granted to it through the city forests, the river Yamuna, the numerous historical forts and palaces with attached parks and the dozens of drains that criss-cross the city.
The city forests have been protected by environmental zealots who protested, went to the courts and lobbied the city administration and the Central governments to accord them legal status for protection against real estate companies.
A positive development has been the rise of the urban middle-class that has come forward to hold protests and put governments under pressure over policy decisions that are decidedly anti-environment. In the last one year alone people have protested, and rightly so, over a proposed road connecting Delhi and Gurgaon through a green belt. The irony is that this area had been recently afforested with native plants. In a similar agitation that took place just a few months later, Delhiites protested over a massive redevelopment plan to construct accommodation for government officials in central Delhi where the Forest Department had given permission to cut down 17,000 fully-grown trees.