A couple of weeks back, in mid of April, I was in Ooty, a hill station in the Nilgiri Mountains in southern India. On April 17, I went for a day trip to the neighboring town of Coonoor, known for its greenery and scenic beauty.
I enjoyed every bit of this road trip as we drove past beautiful bungalows, orchards, canopied roads and sprawling tea gardens along the slopes.
And it was during the Ooty trip, I realized the usefulness of smartphone cameras. They are very handy when it comes to clicking pictures from a moving bus or car. Thanks to my Lumia540. 🙂
Have you seen raindrops on the edge of a Colocasia leaf?
It’s a pure delight to see…
Gloomy sky, incessant rains, muddy streets, and high humidity are some things very common in India during monsoons. But every season has its own beauty. Lush greenery and rain-washed branches of trees bring a freshness that makes the season special for me. 🙂
It was a lazy Saturday afternoon. The sun was little mute outside because of the thick white clouds that were crossing its path often throughout the day. The sky was pale blue. The towering palms in our neighbor’s backyard were swaying there heads in cool breeze. The pussy cat was dozing on the window shade. My eyes were getting heavy and I thought of having a siesta. I went into my room and was about to close the window that this ‘money plant’ caught my eyes. It was looking beautiful green in faded sunlight. And I couldn’t but tried some shots with my digi-cam.
The lush green color of the leaves delighted me and also reminded me of how fast our city, Kolkata is losing its plantation. Perhaps, in future we’ll only have these indoor plants to turn to for green.
Everyday on my way to office I watch them. They are lying dead. It’s truly sad. They didn’t harm anyone neither they did cause any problem to anybody. If they were alive they could give us pure air to fill our lungs. They could give us cool shelter to rest in the scorching sun. Yes… I am talking about those trees which are trees no more … just logs … lying here and there by the VIP Road – Kolkata’s once pride. I don’t know who to ‘thank’ for this – PWD (Roads) West Bengal or the Kolkata Municipal Corporation!
Tree trunks lying beside VIP Road Photo: Moon Roy
The flyover construction works by PWD end much before Shreebhumi-Golaghata area. So there was apparently no need to cut those trees that once graced the VIP Road (between Laketown and Golaghata, the stoppage right next to Ultadanga while you are heading towards Laketown). Just don’t understand how far this ‘tree felling spree’ in Kolkata will continue! And I wonder how the Forest Department can give nod to such irrational tree-cutting exercises!
Recently learnt from an online news portal about the “tree-felling drive” that is going on in Kolkata’s IT hub, Salt Lake Sector V (near Wipro). What is astonishing is that the government is busy in implementing High Court’s order for replacing old 2-stroke autos with 4-stroke LPG autos and banning vehicles that are more than 15 year old. On the other hand, the same government is utterly indifferent when it comes to protecting the greeneries in the city! Why this duplicity?
So far I have not seen any tree-planting project taken up by the local administration or any authority to compensate the loss of green once such construction works are over (check out the entire Dum Dum area and you’ll see). VIP Road is the biggest example. Take VIP-Laketown junction for instance. There were big trees in the triangular divider one of which felled in the storm Ayla and the Municipality did not bother to plant a single sapling there. They are busy in concreting the place and widening the road rather!
Tree trunks lying beside VIP Road Photo: Moon Roy
Cutting down trees in the name of development and no planting of trees afterwards can only put the city life at stake. Flyovers and skyscrapers are much needed things in a booming metro like Kolkata. But what’s the point in living in a place where our children will were specs from their early childhood; will suffer from respiratory trouble and various skin problems; grow weak and unfit with ischemic heart in a polluted concrete jungle? Side-effects of environmental pollution and global warming are many. It’s a different issue that we read about them in the news papers and magazines and then forget about it.
If the government and corporation act like deaf it’s time for us to wake up …to do something to bring back the greenery … to give our children a less polluted environment to live in. After all Kolkata is our city too. And we do have some responsibility towards it.
Footloose Forever 