[Reader-list] Butchering Trees and Pavements

[Ravi Agarwal]

Dear Taraprakash,

Long buses which swivel in the middle I think! Maybe some of them  
also can lower for those who cannot alight otherwise. All made by  
Volvo i think. But that is also the issue. No one really knows. No  
one has been told. Till a couple of months back they needed 'no new  
roads.' But then that could not be really true. So then what was told  
was untrue. All deadlines are now on high speed. There is the  
Commonwealth Games to cater to. What would have taken long earlier,  
is now only a matter of months. Budget constraints are non existent.  
All contraversial projects are now "full speed ahead." Yamuna  
riverfront clearance of settlements, metro through the ridge, tunnel  
road under Humayun's tomb, High Capacity Bus through the city,  
Commonwealth village on the riverbed, at least two new river  
bridges.....the list is endless.

The last time such massive changes (actually on a much smaller scale  
compared to now) was in the mid seventies for the Asian Games. Now  
the Commonwealth Games. Who can question 'national pride?!'

ravi



On Mar 2, 2007, at 7:57 AM, Taraprakash wrote:

It's really sad. What are these high capacity buses by the way? The  
same low floor buses supposed  to be convenient for the physically  
challenged?
If yes, they are simply white elephants. till the time I was in Delhi  
last year, they plied on a route hardly used by the supposed  
beneficiaries.

----- Original Message ----- From: "Ravi Agarwal" <ravig64 at gmail.com>
To: <reader-list at sarai.net>
Sent: Friday, March 02, 2007 7:34 AM
Subject: [Reader-list] Butchering Trees and Pavements


> Dear all,
>
> As I spend another morning today trying to gather evidence of the
> trees , over 2500, marked for felling, I find I cannot shoot for more
> than some minutes. To see fully grown trees, of all shades and
> varieties, the type you cannot find in Delhi any more, some over 50
> years old marked for felling in yellow ink and numbers etched onto
> the tree trunks, is more than I can accept. Behind the construction
> boards of the HSBS ( High Capacity Bus Service) lies a trail of
> disaster. Uprooted giants of trees, some axed, some bleeding at the
> roots, mercilessly felled.
>
> I know of no other city where 8 land higways criss cross it. ( From
> exisiting 6 lane this will now become 8 lane with the new service).
> Cleave it through and hack all that in its way. And a citenzery whcih
> is so quiet that it took a week to even get the media to do a story
> on it. There is such silence and such uncertainty. The isolation
> which can be afforded through the window panes of cars, where we sit
> an decide if we can afford to raise our voices or maybe this will go
> away and no one will know. Like it never hapenned.
>
> My friend the photo printer told me "dil dehal jaata hai jab mei us
> sarak per jaato hoon. Kitne bade and sunder per, aise hi kaat
> denge.?" My heart stops when I go on that road, will such big and
> majestic trees just be cut? Another friend who lives in Saket,
> refuses to look out of the taxi window, since it upsets her so much.
> Like it does me.
>
> Whose consensus was sought. When this project was approved. Who made
> the decision that the road is needed. Who saw the traffic studies?
> Who justified it. Who executed it? How is the consensus made? How are
> such decisions taken? Someone's pet project. Someone well respected
> in the city.  Someone who has always talked about pedisterisation and
> cycle ways. Now that very project stripping the city of trees, and
> pavements. For a high capacity bus!
>
> In the last post I wrote about my inability to act. I wonder if it is
> the larger inability to act. How we seem to have said 'yes' without
> saying anything. How we maybe are caught up in our not wanting to
> neogotiate our little gains or how we justify them to ourselves (the
> city needs better transport! - read as "I like my car!"). There is
> not point thinking and pontificating if we are not prepared to
> participate in what is going on. The city has been changing as I
> write. By April end, the city would have lost over 3000 of its most
> glorious and old trees. Then we can get to work on time. I suppose -
> to a better future!
>
> ravi agarwal
>
> _________________________________________
> reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
> Critiques & Collaborations
> To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with  
> subscribe in the subject header.
> To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
> List archive: &lt;https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>