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How green was my city

Mangalore once was described as having jungles in its midst. But today M. RAGHURAM reports that green spaces are shrinking due to unplanned and rapid urbanisation

GREEN LANDSCAPES The city has several lung spaces or parks

As with any rapidly developing city, Mangalore is fast losing its greenery. The dwindling parks and lung spaces are not only worrying early morning joggers and laughter clubs but also administrators. Even the voices of green activists are being ignored.

The city gets its first morning walker anytime between 5.30 a.m. and 6 a.m. And by 7 most of them would have returned home after a walk in the park, a jog on the pavements, a session at the laugher club or even light exercises by the side of the many benches.

In the last decade fitness enthusiasts have been a steadily growing community in the city. They include everyone from 80-year-old Mukund Prabhu of Mannagudda to 13-year-old Sangeeta of Shivabagh, who have made it a daily routine to visit parks in the morning or use the pavements for a brisk walk. On Sundays it is a reliving of the famous song: "Sunday morning up with the lark, I think I'll take a walk in the park," by Patrick Boone.

The city has several lung spaces or parks. Kadri park is the largest by any measure. It is at the top of a hill and is best for a morning walk or jog. It is free of traffic in the morning with only newspaper vendors and milk boys darting along on their bicycles. There are no stray dogs to chase you or uneven pavements that sometimes leave you with bruised elbows and knees. The green cover is good thanks to Deodhar (rain) trees with large canopies.

There are few other lung spaces such as Valencia, Mannagudda, Nehru Maidaan, Mangala Stadium, Chilimbi Hills, Tagore Park on Bauta Gudda and opposite town hall and many smaller parks.In the list of the Mangalore City Corporation there are 19 big, medium and small parks and at least 10 of them could be developed into good parks where it is possible for people to walk, sit and enjoy the greenery. But only four of them Kadri, Valencia, Tagore Park and Gandhinagar Parks can accommodate a fair number of people. Some of the areas designated as parks hardly have the qualities that make a park — Jeppu, Attavar, Shanti Park, Surathkal and Padavu — are examples.

According to the land use pattern in urban areas, especially inside the corporation area, 17 per cent of the land should have forest or social forestry cover. Bangalore, Chandigarh and New Delhi Metropolitan areas are the few cities that conform to that standard.

With urban development happening at a rapid pace, green spaces are bound to shrink. It is now up to residents associations, activists and concerned citizens to put forward their demands to the Mangalore City Corporation and Mangalore Urban Development Authority.

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