Seeds of a greener tomorrow

THE METROWATER tanker-lorry arrives. People carrying buckets and pots in their hands rush to collect water. A crowded MTC bus comes hurtling down a narrow road. An unsuspecting family engages an auto but only to be fleeced by an unscrupulous driver who really has taken them for a ride.

Life for the ordinary citizens of the metro is not easy. They wage a daily battle for survival amid power cuts and pollution, congested roads and crowded buses, scarcities and shortages... Escape from dreary reality comes in the form of cable TV, which transports them at once to a world of fantasy where the stars of tinseldom cast their magic spell.

Shut off the television set and it is back to Chennai with a hard thud. The frenetic pace of life inexorably drags the citizenry into its vortex. One wonders if they ever pause to ponder where the race for `development' is leading them.

Lush paddy fields are still a common sight in Manali and Thiruvotriyur. There are large houses with tiled roofs and `thinnais' that invite you to rest and perhaps, enjoy a siesta. Though the northern suburbs of the metro have retained their rustic charm, the western and southern suburbs seem to be bitten by the `development' bug. These areas are dotted with factories, theme parks and beach resorts and the roads are choked with people driving about in swank cars talking business on their cell phones. `Development' has practically erased all traces of what must have once been peaceful countryside.

A friend of mine once told me that 60 years ago West Mambalam, in the heart of the city, had green paddy fields and the only sign of development was the occasional suburban train, which used to run from Egmore to Tambaram. Water scarcity was unheard of and the city would be quiet after 7 p.m. He longed for those `golden' days when huge, shady trees lined the roads. There were no crowds and one could go out for a walk or a breath of fresh air. In contrast, was the Mambalam of today with its congested streets and polluted air.

Deforestation started in Chennai in the mid-Eighties in the name of flat construction and many of those beautiful neem, coconut and mango trees that graced the gardens of many homes were felled. Such `development' continues though one is only too aware of the fact that destroying nature can have disastrous consequences for humankind. A study of ecology says:``No organism is an individual. We are all interdependent on one another."

Many beautiful avenue trees were ruthlessly axed recently to widen our highways. Have we forgotten that deforestation can affect the rainfall pattern adversely? Besides, don't we need trees to absorb the increasing amount of carbondioxide that is discharged into the atmosphere by the fossil fuels that we burn everyday?

Let us take positive steps to save our city for its future citizens. Intensive afforestation should be done on an area of 4,000 acres outside the city and a decade hence we would have a green belt that would help combat problems such as pollution, water scarcity and scanty rainfall. Such a measure is far better than planting avenue trees within the city only for the various civic authorities to destroy or uproot. At present, if one department chokes a sapling with cement and tar another digs up its roots to mend a faulty cable or lay a pipeline. To many of its people there is no home away from Chennai. If only we stop playing games with the ecology can we make our metro a better place to live in.

K. HARISH KUMAR

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