Landscaping++
Police Station road – Basvanagudi, is one of those distinct roads in the locality with 10 feet wide footpaths on either side. Recently, as a part of the Subhadra Footpath(safe footpath) project, the authorities took up the task of improving the condition of the footpaths by paving it with granite slabs which cost Rs.100 per square foot. In addition to this they have done some unnecessary landscaping by planting ornamental plants with fencing along the footpath.
In my opinion these ornamental plants and fencing are not at all required and do not serve any purpose. There are sufficient parks such as Krishna Rao Park, Bugle Rock Park in that area, and greenery is in abundance hence there is no need for providing for any extra green cover in this area.
The fenced area around these plants has become a garbage bin and used by the general public. Also they have put small lampposts with coloured lighting along the footpath and according to Mr. Harish Padmanabha, one of the local resident, coloured lighting and ‘yellow coloured fencing’ have made the road look like an amusement park.
The basic of idea of K. Chandrashekar (MLA of Basvanagudi) was to make footpaths safe, which is still a dream in many localities of Bangalore, where one simply cant walk on them without being very alert. It is nice to have safe footpaths, but minus unnecessary plants, fencing and stupid coloured lightings.
Thats a commendable effort.
Bangalore lost a lot of greenery and hope the small shrubs give a nice feeling.
It is nice to see even fences around when compared to my city(chennai) where footpaths are dedicated only for encroachment….
Hey buddy… at least some part of blore the MLAs are taking extra effort to make things better and in a way they should maintain the greenary in the area where it exists. It would be a foolish thing to expect that one day the same nice green belt can be seen in maratahalli.
Actually I am happy about the way things are happening in Basawangudi. I went through that road and it was so soothing to walk on those pavements. Have a walk on kundanhalli gate once ;-)
Bangaloreans are a lucky people to have rerasonably good sideways and fair sprinkling of avenue trees, green belts having ornamental plants, aesthtic looking gardens and parks. If not everywhere, in a majority of the places one comes across lush green and verdant greenery, perhaps much before the city gradually turned into concrete jungle. Some areas are still having greenery and well laid out and maintained parks.
Compare it with Hyderabad or Chennai. There canot be any comparision, only contrast. If Hyderabad footpaths are dotted with all sorts of encroachments (even on the road median in the Raj Bhavan Road in Hyd one comes across ugly glowsign advertisement boards and huge unipole advertisements presenting a slum like look), in Chennai in areas like Triplicane, Roypet, rampant margin encroachments and pushcarts coupled with petty vendors doing businesses on roads itself present a very bad picture. Whereelse one comes across flyover dividers dug up for advertisement boards than in Hyd or street corners three fouths occupied by businesses and autos as in Triplicane and Alwarpet in Chenai.
Bangaloreans must thank their stars and the Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike to have a horticulture wing that at least looks after its green cover well to some extent.
It is also a tribute to the people of Bangalore if the greenery still remained intact. Green-consciousness and environmental awareness among native Bangaloreans is more compared to people in other cities.
I am assuming the fencing is until the saplings grow and will be taken out, cos that looks like a hazard by itself. But I definitely think its a project with good intentions, though some people(like my own mother, living in Basavangudi) do feel it makes walking on these footpaths more of an inconvenience what with having to walk around the greenery and fencing. On the flip side, the greenery is so characeristic of our garden city, that we should make more such efforts to keep the tradition .
I must agree with you. Instead of small shrubs, at least they could have planted trees. Shrubs are NOT a substitute for beneficial, oxygen-producing, carbondioxide-consuming, shade-giving, bird-supporting trees. And I walked the same road with its weird light fixtures and weirder-coloured fences (which impede pedestrian traffic, and jar terribly on the eye when contrasted with the old, sober-coloured homes)…and took a picture or two, but you have said it better than I could.
Short-sighted “green” ideas are as bad as NOT having green ideas. For the amount of space taken up, some saplings planted now will grow into the majestic trees that we always associate with Basavanagudi. Why can’t our authorities take a leaf out of the past and plant more trees instead of ornamental shrubs, which give no shade, fix no nitrogen in the soil, and bring no relief to the sun-trap effect in the urban areas?
When we see long nails driven into the trunks of shade-giving avenue trees in cities and towns to fix advertisement boards or to tie political and commercial banners, we cannot but feel sorry at the treachery of perpetrators of such environmental crimes.
By fixing a nail in the tree trubk or stem the life of a tree (plants have life) is reportdly cut by 25 years. Plants or trees recycle the pollution caused by nasty humans and restore ecological balance by proving life sustaining oxygen. They give shade, flowers, fruits and serve as fuel wood when they die. We the nasty humans do every possible thing to kill and destroy them, in return.
One of the reasons for rising world temperatures is said to be the destruction of world’s great Amazon rainforests in Brazil. If we keep on cutting trees and wipe them out from the face of earth in our greed, the day maynot be far off when children and others in a few years will be forced to go round with oxygen masks.
Save the plants and plants will save you message should be inculcated from childhood. We have no right to deprive oxygen to posterity.
Yea, atleast someone is putting the public money to some good…. they should getin trees not small plants…. and the fencing is unnecessary.