The city is fast losing its green belts, thanks to the mindless proliferation of towers

 

It is a bad omen for the city. Mumbai is losing its lungs as fast as the world is losing its polar ice caps. As per planning norms Mumbai needs 0.5 acre of open space per 1,000 people. Roughly translated, that means each Mumbaikar needs 22sq. ft of open space – or about the area of one’s grave. That’s the ideal.

 

How much does Mumbai have now? The answer remains as dismal as 0.03 acre (the area of your 21 inch TV). And how much do Delhi, New York and London have.  3 to 4 acres.

 

Who is responsible for this sorry state – government, builders or the hoi polloi like us? Pathetically, each one of us has a fair share of this blame. We indulge in blame game rather than finding means to bridge the lacuna.

 

Various master plans to develop Mumbai have earmarked certain acres of lands as the breathing zones or the lungs of the metropolis. But despite this the city administrators flouted eco-norms and went ahead with their building spree. Within a short span of a decade a major chunk of green belts eloped from the island city and its suburbs, like Andheri, Bandra and other suburbs.

 

As soon as the chief minister took over the reins of the state a couple of years ago, he promised to overhaul the development strategy of the city. This emboldened the powerful builders’ lobby who fervently went ahead with their building activities. And the result: The sky-scrapers mushroomed everywhere in Mumbai. 

 

Given the extra FSI allotted to them in a hasty drive to bring about a facelift to many utterly disorganized areas, the builders are usurping open spaces earmarked for playgrounds or even parking spaces in many cases. And the worst part of the problem is that each building on an average, according to a rough estimate, has at least 100-125 cars. Now multiply this with the gargantuan number of high-rises the city have. It provides a horrendous figure. The pollution spewing contraption – vehicles, diffuse more poison in the air to inhale. The astronomical rise in vehicles also chokes up traffic in this bad traffic island. Though it’s another issue and requires to be debated separately.

 

Many fronts and NGO’s are fighting court battles against the land sharks that drool at open spaces. They are ensuring that posterity loiters amidst steel and concrete structures. Devoid of green spaces, the oxygen paucity will push us at the margin of survivability, believes social crusader and former IPS officer YP Singh.