Oxygen starved city on ventilator

A plague of greedy developers, conniving civic officials and encroachers is fast gobbling up green, open spaces in the city, leaving in its wake a concrete jungle gasping for air.  In the past two deca-des, hundreds of gardens and playgrounds have vanished from the city, le-aving children and nature lovers with no place to call their own.

Since 1991, five open fields earmarked as recreation grounds in Mahim have fallen victim to avaricious builders and become wastelands due to an apathetic Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). The area, which is just under 1sq km, is boxed in from the west by LJ Road, Senapati Bapat Road to the east, TH Kataria Marg to the south and Gabriel Road and B Keer Marg to the north.

Recently, DNA reporter Suhit Kelkar went on a short trip with civic activist Girish Raut to document the extend to which concretisation and “slumming” has transformed a one-city block area. These are their findings.

But first, some brief history. In 1964, government planners created a development plan (DP), neatly dividing the city into areas designated for residential and commercial development, open spaces and civic amenities such as hospitals. The plan stated succinctly that land, whether occupied or empty, would eventually be purchased from its owner and developed for all aforementioned purposes. If the city had stuck to its original DP, it would have been much cleaner, greener and less ugly today. But, the DP was often changed, and reservations altered (some legally, others illegally), to build more buildings. And, things have been gone from bad to worse.

According to BMC, planners had hoped to develop four acres of open land per 1,000 people in 1964. That ratio changed to 0.03 acres per 1,000 in 1991, and only 0.01 per 1,000 by 2005.

“Open space is as good as gone once the DP reservation is changed,” said Girish Raut.

“Unless citizens are aware and active, green spaces are going to be as rare as unicorns.”