In a panel discussion between local activists, political representatives, open space experts and a team of mid-day journalists, BMC agrees to keep parks open all day but rules out keeping gardens open beyond 9 pm, citing safety and maintenance reason
Citizens, experts and officials at the mid-day roundtable
mid-day roundtable » The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is planning to keep the city's gardens open for longer. The commitment came at a roundtable organised by mid-day at the end of a two-month audit of the city's biggest and most popular gardens, which rated them on facilities and safety.
ADVERTISEMENT
During the discussion between local activists, political representatives, open space experts and a team of mid-day journalists, Dr Kishor Kshirsagar, the deputy municipal commissioner in charge of gardens, said the civic body will work towards keeping gardens open from 6 am to 9 pm. Currently, the city's gardens are shut between 9 am and 4 pm, depriving a sizeable population, including homemakers and children, access to open spaces. Kshirsagar, however, ruled out keeping the parks open beyond 9 pm, citing safety and maintenance reasons.
From L-R: Powai resident Elsie Gabriel, environmentalist Rishi Agarwal, superintendent of the gardens department Jitendra Pardeshi, Deputy Municipal Commissioner Kishor Kshirsagar and Congress Corporator Asif Zakaria
The panel included Jitendra Pardeshi, superintendent of the gardens department, Congress Corporator Asif Zakaria, and environmentalist Rishi Agarwal. The discussion was around issues related to maintenance, timings, and safety, with participants They asked the officials if gardens could be kept open round the clock.
"Though it is not possible to keep gardens open 24 hours for security reasons, we will definitely look at extending the current timings and keep them open during the day time," said Kshirsagar. "Extension of timings can be planned on a case-to-case basis, as each area has different dynamics and issues." Rishi Aggarwal, who has written a book on the city's open spaces, supported the move. "The only period homemakers and kids get free is after 11 am and in the afternoons," said Aggarwal.
Activist Sunil Khosla points to a photo of Linking Road's Patwardhan Garden, audited by mid-day, to show the piled up garbage
Later, when citizens raised the issues of maintenance and security in gardens, the BMC officials admitted that it was not possible to keep an all-day vigil due to lack of staff.
"For the 640 gardens we have in the city, there are 110 garden employees, including botanists and horticulturists," said Kshirsagar. "What we can do is install complaint and suggestion boxes. Local BMC employees can review them to improve maintenance and beautification where required."
Activists Arun Kejriwal, Kaustubh Bhagat and Nikhil Desai during the discussion
Excerpts from the discussion
mid-day: The garden timings are very odd and with the current corporate lifestyle, a lot of people working in shifts can't use the gardens. Why can't we keep gardens open 24x7?
Dr Kishor Kshirsagar: There should be some time limit. There are issues like maintenance, cleaning, trimming, watering the shrubs and plants, among other things. That is why we shut the gardens in the afternoons. In the night, of course, if you go beyond 9 pm, security is an issue. But still, considering lifestyles, we can try keeping some gardens, case-wise - not as a policy - can be kept open for longer hours.
Asif Zakaria: Bandra has so many gardens and open spaces where residents themselves say, please close them after 9 pm. There are certain issues related to keeping the gardens open till late. If tomorrow, god forbid, something happens, it is the BMC that will be blamed. They will say why did you keep it open so late?
Rishi Aggarwal: In 2014-15, I did a research on these very issues. What I saw was that post-9 pm is not as much of an issue as 9 am to 4 pm - the middle hours. Unfortunately, we keep talking about corporate lifestyle, etc, but corporate lifestyle is enjoyed by just 5 to 10 per cent of the population. A majority of the population that uses the gardens belongs to categories like housewives and children who are busy in the mornings. The only time they are free is after 11 am. By that time, the parks are closed. Horniman Circle is the best example. If you go to HC at lunch time, what a beautiful sight it is. A lot of salesmen, people who are servicing us, who come to our offices to pick up our KYC details, etc, have their lunch and rest for 15-20 minutes there before they resume their grind.
Kurla's Bhagwan Singh speaks about making gardens senior-citizen friendly
So, it is absolutely inhuman and elitist to close parks at 9 am, because it is only people who have domestic help, people who have a whole lot of people servicing them, who have the luxury of taking a walk in the morning. Everybody else, who is from the working class, works during that time.
And, even globally, [New York's] Central Park closes at 1 am and opens at 4 am. It is closed for just three hours. Maintenance is no problem. You can always cordon off sections for grass cutting, pruning, watering, etc.
In a city like Mumbai, which is so compressed and has the lowest per-capita open space ratio, these timings are squeezing Mumbaikars' per capita open space even further by giving them access only from 5 am to 9 am. This should be considered for all parks and not on a case-by-case basis. There should not be any daytime closure for the parks in the city.
Nikhil Desai: I used RTI to find out the official garden timings. The BMC replied saying they should be open for a mandatory 15 hours. But they are hardly open for six to nine hours.
Nikhil Desai notes down a key point
mid-day: As an opposition, what are your [Zakaria's] ideas to the BMC to maintain gardens better?
Zakaria: Firstly, I would like to compliment mid-day for this drive. Maintenance has to be a continuous process. Any open space, the more it is kept open for people and the more it is in the public eye, the easier maintenance becomes. We can't blame the BMC alone. Citizens should also take ownership. There has to be collaboration and we have to work together.
mid-day: Like housing societies have a committee for smooth functioning, shouldn't there be a committee of local representatives that will act as a caretaker body for gardens?
Aggarwal: The world over, park departments are so beautifully run - New York, London, Tokyo, Paris, Singapore, these are all government-run departments. I think we can improve so much. The garden department can be an absolute joy for people to work.
But here, we give Rs 150-crore contracts to cut trees, which result in massacre in the name of trimming. How many expert botanists does BMC employ, how many horticulturists? I feel a bulk of the work should happen within the municipal corporation because you have much better quality control. And voluntarily, if people join in, then it is a win-win.
Sunil Khosla: Sir, is it practical to have a BMC representative in every garden? You see, there should be one table-chair, where the representative comes and sits and he informs the BMC about the status of the garden.
Kshirsagar: We have 640 gardens all over Mumbai. If we deploy one man for every garden, then I will require 640 people. The strength of the department is 110, most of them either botanists or horticulturists. It is not possible. You have to use your mobile phone and complaint to us.
Open space expert Rishi Aggarwal speaks about keeping gardens open 24x7 as Powai resident Elsie Gabriel looks on
mid-day: Why not make use of social media? This is the only department that is not on Twitter.
Kshirsagar: Since last month, we are on Twitter. We will enhance our social media response to address citizen queries.
mid-day: Why can't we have one garden that we can proudly say is the role model for the entire city? There is not one garden that is perfectly made.
Jitendra Pardeshi: There are a lot of gardens which are nicely maintained and developed and attract many citizens. There might be the odd one here and there. Of course, gardens in Colaba might not be like those in Govandi. There may not be uniqueness in every garden, but when you go to Matunga, there is a beautiful stretch developed under a flyover, which is unique.
mid-day: But our audit conclusion showed otherwise…
Pardeshi: Maintenance is a continuous process. If today it is bad, it can be definitely bettered tomorrow.
mid-day: Pramod Mahajan Park in Dadar, which is a huge garden, lacks drinking water facility. What could be the reason for this? We spoke to five to 10 people during the audit, they all complained about lack of sanitation, drinking water, non-operational lights. The parameters are uniform across.
Kshirsagar: There was drinking water supply in that garden. It was subsequently damaged by visitors. I do not blame anybody. Now, we are repairing it and installing a more modern set-up, which will have a drinking water fountain like we find at airports.
Deputy Municipal Commissioner Kishor Kshirsagar (centre) in conversation with Superintendent of Gardens Jitendra Pardeshi, as Corporator Asif Zakaria looks on.
mid-day: Aren't drinking water and toilets mandatory in all gardens?
Kshirsagar: No, it depends on the size of the garden. If the garden is below one acre, where can we place the toilet? For every garden, for every open space, if you ask me to have one toilet, I will say no. But for gardens that are more than two to three acres, where lot of people visit, we have toilets. And we are trying to maintain it. Maybe somewhere, you will find a complaint, but we will take care of it in the due course of time.
Anubha Sharma: I am representing a group of women, who work with poor children. We spend an hour with them in gardens everyday. We operate in 16 spaces, and cater to 1,600 children. Some educated women come and sit with them in parks and teach them so that these first generation children from slums going to municipal schools have a better chance in life. In the H-West ward, these sessions were stalled as a train was installed in the park.
It actually ran for only a month and in that period, it was actually one day a week - on Sundays. For this, we have been barred from entering the garden since November. We had to shift the children to a nearby garden.
Mahakali ALM member Ramesh Pai makes a point to the officials
Kshirsagar: I will call the concerned officer and we will solve this. There are two sides to a coin. Whatever she is doing is very good, excellent. I have visited some of the sites. But the other point of view is that we cannot convert a garden into a tuition class. That is also not desirable. So, we have to find a middle path in between.
Bhagwan Singh: In Kurla's Subhash Nagar, the Eknath Koparde garden has no drinking water, and even the toilets are damaged. To our misfortune, nobody is paying attention. My big complaint is that the BMC never responds to letters! I have written several letters to them but no one pays attention. Gardens are very important for kids and senior citizens. At least arrange benches of good quality for us. And also develop children's play area and deploy a watchman for security.
Kshirsagar: It is difficult to have an open forum where Mumbaikars get to speak to civic officials directly [like this]. Within a month's time you will see Koparde Garden's makeover being done by us.
Sunil Khosla: If there is manpower shortage, can a representative work on a staggered schedule?
Kshirsagar: What I can do is place a complaint box so that citizens can write down their issues. We cannot make somebody sit round the clock just to hear complaints.
Snake rescuer Kaushal Dubey, Powai resident Sunish Subramanian Kunju and independent researcher Rajesh Sanap
Elsie Gabriel: I think it is high time we resurrect and refurbish the ALMs of the various wards. Then the citizen groups can join hands with the BMC and work in tandem. The ALMs of each ward will keep an eye on the gardens.
Kshirsagar: It is a good suggestion, but I cannot comment on it as this requires a policy decision, which cannot be taken here at this roundtable.
Arundhati Mhatre: I am a Mumbai resident but I visit Thane parks more often as there are several beautiful biodiversity parks there. Why don't we have such bio-diversity parks here? For example a butterfly park or a herb garden… When I visit any garden, I see a lot of non-native trees, which is why we don't see any butterflies or birds in our gardens. Instead of just beautification, when will we look into value-addition?
Kshirsagar: People want different types of gardens and themes. If we implement one theme, other themes will be ignored. Someone wants a biodiversity garden. I appreciate it. We will do something for a biodiversity garden.
Rishi: She has made a good point. The BMC plants a lot of wrong species…
Sunish Subramanian Kunju: And if there are native species, maintenance will be less too.
Rajesh Sanap: I understand it is not possible to give attention everywhere but there is a garden in Aarey. It is a picnic point, which has a lot of biodiversity. Can BMC develop a garden keeping in mind its natural environment? Why don't we place informative boards in all gardens? Citizens need to know about the biodiversity in their gardens.
Kshirsagar: If we only focus on native trees, we can never improve.
Arun Kejriwal: I want to point out three things. First, you said toilet facilities are not possible in each and every garden. What we have observed is wherever there is a toilet facility, footfall has increased. When we got a toilet constructed, we saw senior citizens started coming. They don't want to visit gardens where there are no facilities, because of health issues. Second is that in several gardens, people hold various sessions like yoga. They claim a particular time slot is theirs and chase others away. This has to be looked into. Third, what about composting facilities?
Kshirsagar: External things we will not allow…
Kejriwal: About rain-water harvesting… Can we not have it in at least the big gardens?
Kshirsagar: Rain-water harvesting is a very complex issue. To collect water, you need to construct a building, which is not possible in gardens. As it is, the water collected in gardens percolates. We do have composting in our gardens.
Sunish: When gardens are developed, why doesn't BMC take citizens' suggestions?
Kshirsagar: I will publish the plan of development of about 55 gardens for 15 days so that people can offer suggestions.
Anubha Sharma: In some gardens, it is noticed that the BMC is not allowing children in the lawn area…
Kshirsagar: Denying children from come to the lawns is not correct.
Kaushal Dubey: Being a snake rescuer, I have a different question. There are a lot of man-animal conflicts in areas near forest links like Aarey Milk Colony or Salaskar Garden. The Mahakali ALM Park also sees snakes as it is in the periphery of Aarey Milk Colony. There is leopard activity in Salaskar Udyan. In these gardens, lights are not on at all times. There should at least be a board [warning visitors] mandatory.
Kshirsagar: Good suggestion.
Sunil Khosla: This is my Patwardhan Garden (pointing to the mid-day backdrop). This is on Linking Road. The garden looks like a graveyard. On July 2, the ward officer came and instructed to clean it. But nobody has come as yet to clear the drains. It looks like everyone in the BMC wants to help, but they are all helpless…
Kshirsagar: Nobody is helpless. We will get this cleared immediately.
Also read: mid-day Garden Audit: Now, you can plan your own garden!
Catch up on all the latest Mumbai news, crime news, current affairs, and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
