Leaders, please listen to people’s voice of reason!

 

 

If numbers are an indication, then the authorities should realise that their proposal to bring down or translocate as nearly as 5,000 trees in Ajni Vann to construct an Inter-Modal Station Project of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) in Ajni has a strong opposition from the people of Nagpur. For, as many as 7,790 objections from members of public poured into the offices of the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) -- demonstrating that the project has no popular appeal. In fact, this number could have been much bigger had all the objections that came in fitted the format. The NMC will now prepare a factual report on the basis of those objections and send it to the Maharashtra Government -- which in turn will decide the fate of the trees in Ajni Vann.

 

 

 

And until the State Government makes up its mind on this matter, all environmentalists will keep their fingers crossed as to the fate of the wonderful arboreal gift of Nature to the city. Such a massive demonstration of public ire should be good enough for the State Government to decide against tree felling and translocation -- as numbers, after all, are a mark of democratic expression. Anybody in position of authority must demonstrate an equal and abiding respect for public opinion expressed in numericals of such proportion. This point also suggests strongly that the city of Nagpur -- that is its people and its leaders in diverse fields - give a serious thought to the larger issue of conservation of Nature in the city which attained its identity 300-plus years ago. Even a casual comparison between the situation say fifty years ago and now will show that the city has allowed a terrible degradation of its gifts of Nature in a manner like no other place must have done.

 

The city of Nagpur has allowed the number of its water-bodies -- lakes and community ponds -- to deplete. It has allowed its three rivers -- the Naag Nadi, the Pili Nadi, and the Pohra Nadi -- to get turned into gutters and septic tanks of massive size. A mad spread of urbanisation also has occupied every possible open spot in the city’s sprawling geography over time. And to make matter worse, in the past some years, some vested interests have found pleasure in assaulting whatever forest patches the city has been proud to possess.

 

The issue of Ajni Vann stems from this concern for vegetation, for the green cover, for that air-cleansing factory of Nature. “But where are forest patches in Nagpur?”, one reader asked. In response to that question, ‘The Hitavada’ has been publishing fine pictures of whatever forest patches and green cover to show to the people the city’s natural treasure. But then came another suggestion from a concerned reader: “Please, do not expose these spots to the evil eyes of the so-called developmentalists. For, these pictures will give them further ideas!” This suggestion symbolises the anguish of the common people about environmental conservation. It also demonstrates how development is being pushed at the cost of green cover for years. If people in politics and in positions of authority are not able to see and sense this shade of public opinion, then they are blind and deaf. But if they are not so, and are open-minded, then they should pay appropriate heed to public opinion and put aside those projects that threaten to subvert Nature’s gifts to the city of Nagpur. As members of a democratic society, all the citizens can do is this. As leaders of the society, it is up to that small band of people in authority -- of whatever kind -- to listen to this people’s voice of reason.