Any effort to make city greener is welcome

Rule is mandatory for building sites bigger than 10,000 sq m. BMC claims the Miyawaki technique ensures plants grow 10 times faster than those that involve the usual method

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has made the plantation of green spaces using the Miyawaki technique mandatory at construction sites that are more than 10,000 square metres in area.

The building proposal department will now include this condition in its intimation for disapproval (IOD), a letter that the civic body sends to a builder or developer who proposes to undertake construction work.

Miyawaki forestation is a method of greening that originated in Japan and involves planting saplings very close together. These densely packed plants eventually turn into a mini forest. This is ideal for Mumbai, a city which is synonymous with space crunch.

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It is always great when initiatives are taken for greening, both at the official and citizen level. In a city where construction cranes are silhouetted against the sky and high-rise buildings are seen as an indicator of progress, every effort to preserve or increase greenery is needed and welcome.

The diktat comes as a boost to citizen activists fighting hard to maintain some greenery in the concrete city, and as it has come from the authorities themselves, it must be followed. A while ago, this paper highlighted a citizen movement to increase the number of banyan trees in the city. These are an endangered species, given that they require a substantial amount of space. Even this initiative needs support as it will, in a small way, redress the ecological imbalance in Mumbai.

If Miyawaki is the way one can improve the green cover, let us implement the move with expert help. When those at the helm - with the power to green-light or stop projects - activists, environmentalists and laypersons come together, we will see change and progress.