Depleting green cover

Haridwar is fast losing its greenery in the name of development, says P.S. Chauhan:

Greenery and sanitation were the two special features for which the holy city was once known all over. However, during the last two decades or so the city has lost most on both these counts.

There was a time when there were more than two dozen parks in the city, besides many orchards dotting the periphery of the city. Some of the well-known parks in the city were Ram Rakha Park at Jwalapur, Shravan Nath Park in Shravan Nath Nagar at Haridwar city and Laljiwala Park at north Haridwar, with swings, slides and lush green plants and blooming flowers. Going down the memory lane, Ram Murti Veer, a senior citizen of Avas Vikas Colony near Ranipur crossing, reminisces, "These parks served as playgrounds for children and the old used to relax and stroll there. These parks were virtually the lungs of the city, providing fresh air to the citizens." All this is history now, since all these parks have now vanished into thin air, leaving no trace behind. The disappearance of these parks has not only robbed the city of much of its aesthetic beauty but has also degraded its environment .

The rapid commercialization and the pressure of increasing population took a heavy toll on the parks in the city and the orchards on the fringes of the city. After 1990 the prices of land started soaring and the land mafia exploited the situation to mint money. Some parks have been usurped by the unscrupulous persons, while some have been sold by the greedy owners to the land mafia and the builders . The park at Lalta Rau Bridge in the main city has been usurped by a political party, which runs its office from there . The Shravan Nath Park, situated in the posh colony of the city, was sold by the trustees of the Shravan Nath Muth and commercial complexes stand there these days. The other parks of the city tell the same sorry tale. Jungles of concrete, including residential buildings and commercial complexes, have mushroomed where once existed beautiful parks. "The Haridwar Development Authority (HDA), which was set up in 1986 for the planned development of the city, has remained a mute spectator to the plundering of the greenery of the city and has miserably failed in discharging its duty," rues Kaushal Shikhola, a prominent priest of Jwalapur. To some extent the citizens are also to be blamed. The parks are public property. But when a park is usurped or sold, no one comes forward to raise a voice against it," says Kamala Joshi a social activist of Dadu Bagh Kankhal. There is also provision of a park in every colony but this provision exists only in the layout of these colonies . In most of the cases these parks have either been encroached upon or sold by colonizers.

Besides the disappearance of the parks in the main city, the felling of trees in the orchards on the outskirts of the city has caused considerable depletion in the green cover of the city .Taking the case of Kankhal alone, there were 21 tree gardens as per the revenue records, at the time of the creation of the state in 2000. The number of these gardens came down to 10 in 2006 and now only four are left. These gardens with thousands of trees at Sapt Sarovar, Bhupatwala, near the industrial area, Sitapur, Saray, Jagjeetpur, on the national highway from Haridwar to Roorkee, on the high way from Bahadrabad to Dhanauri, all have been logged off by the land sharks to build colonies and commercial complexes ,in flagrant violation of the environment protection rules.

Recently, hundreds of trees were chopped from an orchard at Sitapur. In a belated action, the forest department arrested the owner of the orchard along with some of his accomplices. The forest circle officer, K.S Rawat has admitted that there seems to be negligence of duty on the part of the forest personnel of the range. The sources say that the few remaining tree gardens near the city are now the next targets of the colonizers and the builders.

"Large scale felling of trees, a complete violation of rules, could not have been possible without an unholy nexus between the land mafia, the politicians and the officials, including those of the forest department, the HDA and the revenue," regrets Dr. Sanjay Maheshwari of S.M.J.N College Haridwar .V.S Dhanik, the secretary of the HDA says that it is really difficult to tighten the noose on the land mafia, since the tree gardens which have been chopped off are dozens in number and constructions which have cropped up at these places are in thousands. "A massive drive is the need of the hour to deal with this menace," says Dhanik.

Amid the dismal situation, the Swarn Jayanti Park of the B.H.E.L is a shining exception. The B.H.E.L administration deserves lavish commendation for this very well maintained park, with its velvet green grass, abundance of large varieties of flowers and spacious lawns. It is an example for the district administration and the city municipal board to emulate.