Mumbai: Locals, activists raise concerns with BMC over concreting of Bandra Fort garden

The before and after pictures that locals attached with their letter

Several Bandra residents, activists and people from other areas too, have written a letter to the BMC which was handed over to the H/ West office on Tuesday and emailed to officials concerned from the H/West ward and the Garden Department, raising concerns about "increased concretisation work and reduction of greens observed at the Bandra Fort garden, next to the 17th Century Heritage Bandra Fort", their letter, with 80 signatories, stated at the outset.

Excerpts from the communication went on to say that, "This has increased the heat, making it difficult for citizens who were frequent visitors to this once-upon-a-time cool and shady garden. The garden was recently opened to the public in the first week of October with restricted timings. We are shocked to see the drastic reduction of greenery and the concreting work in the garden. The new garden is designed in a completely unsustainable way and is anti-nature."

The letter cites what it says are a number of changes made to the garden, like: the once green lawn (near the waterfront promenade) has been replaced with concrete tiles in which the blazing heat of the sun is glaring to one's eyes, the lack of shade in the waterfront promenade, the once bushy patch next to the main amphitheatre stage has been replaced by a concretised structure which has increased the heat in the amphitheatre." There are other concerns like, "the lotus pond upstairs has been removed."

The letter goes on to talk about the huge amounts spent on all this, and instead of bringing down temperatures it provides very little shade. A simple solution the letter said, was, "to ‘increase' the number of indigenous trees that will result in cooling the area even better with more fruit-bearing trees to attract birds; increasing the number of shrubs, bushes, flowering plants, adding garden seats in the lawn without addition of concrete would have been more cost-effective, economical, and aligning with Mumbai's Climate Action Plan."

There are several suggestions towards the end of the letter one of which is to "restore it to the original look/layout" and, "to consult citizens before executing such projects by uploading the detailed plan on the BMC website, giving us one month to respond on whether we approve or object to the plan because such projects involve taxpayers' money." Their letter was accompanied by some ‘before' and ‘after' pictures with captions to illustrate their points.

The other side

A senior BMC Garden Department official stated, "We have not added any concrete or undertaken any extensive concreting work, taking away from the green. Some parts needed a little repair and that has been done. We are committed to adding green, even seeing to it that more shrubs are given in the area for optimal greening."