Green City- not anymore?
From “Finally there’s going to be Metro in Chennai” to “how long will they take to construct it?” to “I love the metro. It’s so convenient and really fast!” to “Urgghh! this doesn’t cover so many places. They need to start expanding to other areas as well!”, we’ve come a long way and now it’s time for our next wish to be fulfilled- “Chennai Metro Phase 2”.
I woke up to a great, bright morning and it was made all the more better by this wonderful news that left me with no words. We all should feel really good seeing the headline “Metro phase 2 to come up over 2000 trees in Chennai”. As per the master plan, about 2000+ trees are to be felled to make way for the mega project. Since they now realise that this city has no space for further constructions, one of the forests is going to be chopped down to construct a station. It’s really nice that they acknowledge the fact that reducing even a single tree brings down the CO2 absorption level and thus the O2 level and hence there is a noble initiative by the great men to plant 12 saplings for every tree that would be felled. The real question is “Where is the place to plant these saplings and watch them grow into majestic trees? Even if there is some place, how long is it going to take for these saplings to grow into fully grown majestic trees?”. There’s enough land available to construct about 10 huge malls, shopping complexes, 4 Saravana Stores in the same city, large residential complexes, theme parks, theatres but there’s no land other than forests and public parks to construct the metro? Surely not surprising enough.
What a SHAME! This is what we sacrifice for the comforts we wish to live in? While the world talks about global warming and the dire need for afforestation, here is a wonderful initiative by our ‘well-wishers’. While there are conservationists giving their heart and soul to bring about a change for the good, here we have people hell bent on balancing the goodness. There has not been any step taken towards clearing the landfill in places like Pallikaranai, where most of the city’s waste is being dumped every single day, the height of which now reaches that of a multi-storey building, leaving behind the vast marshland to die out under the burden of the waste dumped and murdering the species that found a home on the marshland and they now have found a way to add to the loss. How is this compensation even enough?
Just when I began to think that people are more aware, and have begun taking initiatives towards the nature and the other living beings that are struggling to co-exist with us, I came across this headline- “Endangered Crocodile Dies Of Shock Because Of Loud Bass Music From An Event In Chennai”. This incident occurred less than a month ago in the very same city due to blaring music from “The Sheraton Grand Chennai Resort & Spa”. Rom Whitaker devastatingly writes:
The sad truth is that, despite a 1000 people like me, all over the world, are trying hard to bring out the reality, we still choose to turn a blind eye to this. We still will continue to use the metro, still attend, if not host a party at several such Sheratons, enjoy the blaring loud noise, come back home, read an article of a devastated person writing about the sad murder of a crocodile and share it all over social media feeling bad for the beautiful creature, continue to dispose garbage unsegregated without making an attempt to reduce the waste and yet complain about the marshlands being suffocated with the waste.
It is ridiculous as to how in the process of enjoying all “comforts” we are ruining our own surroundings, and now we are spending a huge sum of money to look for ways to convert desserts into lush green forests after cutting down the ones that existed, to convert sea water into drinking water and at the same time expanding the land through land reclamation and probably soon find ways of survival by breathing in CO, CO2, SO2 etc.
But guess what the irony is? Public transport is still a relatively better means when compared to travelling by private vehicles and hence we still prefer to choose it over the latter. I personally love using the metro as it’s cost effective, faster, saves fuel, and is comparatively a greener mode of transport but it’s just sad that we are at a point where the real question is- “Who is the nicer villain?”. What none realises is the fact that Mother Nature needs no help. The nature has existed and survived through the millions of years and will continue to do so. One wrong step and nature can give us back a 100 fold. It is us who need help and every step we take for the betterment of nature is a step for our good.
