Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Sunday, Nov 13, 2005
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Sunday, Nov 13, 2005 |
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Industry & Economy
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Real Estate & Construction `Open' to good influence D. Murali
This lush green at the Golconda golf course in Hyderabad was a garbage dump in the past. - P.V. Sivakumar
In The Two Gentlemen of Verona Speed tells Proteus, "Open your purse, that the money and the matter may be both at once delivered." A simple commercial transaction, that is, from the Bard's pen. Applied to land, though, one finds that purses are more readily open than the demand can be met, because the resource is severely limited in supply. Deleterious fallout of uncontrolled commerce in land is the shrinking of precious open spaces. The judgment of the Bombay High Court in the NTC case talks repeatedly about open spaces, so much so the phrase appears in 120 places. One learns from the text that the State Government had stated in its affidavit dated March 22 that according to the city's planning norm, `open space per 1,000 population' has to be 0.2 hectare (approximately 0.5 acre). What is the reality? "The existing open spaces in the city are 0.03 acre (or less) per 1,000 population (i.e. approximately 6 per cent of the above planning norm)." To emphasise the importance of open spaces and public spaces, the court quoted from Report of the National Commission of Urbanisation thus: "In every city there is a wide range of public spaces, from streets, chowks and public squares to paths and maidans and including important civic and religious buildings. We seem to be curiously indifferent to this crucial determinance of our urban environment. Our lack of concern for (and more often than not, callous misuse of) these spaces has reduced our urban environment to the pitiful state it is in today." The court observed that it is vital to note that we are neglecting the importance of these open spaces both from environmental angle and from the ecological angle. Importance of open spaces has been grossly underestimated and undervalued, rued the court. "The importance of natural wetlands and water-bodies for flood control has been completely overlooked in the planning process. The approach has been to destroy the natural resources and in its place construct manmade projects," pointed out the court. This neglect has led to the loss of a large number of freshwater reservoirs, tanks and so on, said the court and cautioned that even the existing ones are under perennial threat. "This has been one of the major causes for heavy flooding in Mumbai during the last week of July 2005," mentions the judgment, hoping perhaps that we'd be wiser at least in retrospect. On the threats to open spaces, the court was quite open: "All of us are aware that playgrounds, gardens and other open spaces are being steadily encroached upon either by slum-dwellers or by official and authorised encroachments like club houses, gymkhanas, religious and political functions and fairs." Open spaces are therapeutic. All cities and towns need green spaces as much as other amenities like hospitals, educational institutions, roads, and public chowks, stated the court. "Health of the residents is directly related to the ratio of built-up area and open area, inasmuch as in a congested area, the occurrence of respiratory ailments is much more compared to the places where there is sufficient balance maintained between the built-up area and the open spaces. That is the reason these green and open spaces are called lungs of the cities." The court cited a few global statistics to show where we stand, assuming we have at least standing space! "The ideal ratio recommended for the open spaces for Mumbai is 4 acres per 1,000 persons. New York has 5.33 acres of open space per 1,000 persons, whereas London has 4.84 acres per 1,000 persons. On the contrary, when the study was conducted in the year 1970 the city of Mumbai had a shocking 0.03 acres of open space per 1,000 persons, whereas, today, the ratio would be 0.015 acres per 1,000 persons which should be approximately 540 times less than the minimum recommended." Why are open spaces so important? The court explained. "In view of lack of proper outdoor recreation facilities, social behaviour pattern gets seriously affected. Children invariably become restless and divert their attention to disruptive activities, as there are no places to play. Elderly persons do not have places to have fresh air and to have pleasant and quiet moments." Owing to lack of green and open spaces, oxygen in the air gets reduced and pollution level increases. "As a result, even the pregnant woman inhales less oxygen and conveys the same through her placenta to the child growing in her womb. Medically it has been established that insufficient supply of oxygen leads to various mental and other physical infirmities." Among the many literary touches in the judgment is the reference to Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Written in 1932, the book conceptualised five races in this world, viz. Alpha race with the higher intelligence level, Beta with a slightly lower IQ, Gama race with a still lower IQ, Delta race with further lower IQ, and Epsilon race with IQ of a moron or idiot. "In his book, the author has conceptualised that to get such children, test-tube babies will be allowed to grow with 100 per cent oxygen to have Alpha race and about 70 per cent oxygen for Epsilon race." With a shortage of oxygen, the first organ affected is the brain, and thereafter the skeleton! "At 70 per cent of normal oxygen you got dwarfs. At less than 70, eyeless monsters," is a snatch from Huxley. "Hence, in our city of Mumbai, we might start having a large number of children born with various mental and physical infirmities, if the oxygen level goes on reducing gradually in view of lack of green and open spaces and lack of recreation facilities," cautioned the court. "Medically it has been also established that for a proper and healthy growth of children specially for their lungs and bones, the children will have to play in an open ground and playground by running around," reads the judgment. How I wish I could say, `Welcome to the open air!' as Gloucester greets in King Richard III!
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