A few days back I posted in FB a photo of an elephant walking on the road in the night. It evoked such a response some of them were quite hilarious. A friend of mine posted in FB agains a photo of a peacock in all its splendour in a place where the construction for an apartment complex is going on. There was another post in FB decrying the construction of building on the traditional elephant corridor near the vellingiri hills by a yoga teacher and by a private university. There was a comment in my post about man-animal conflict. The friend posted that when he was in Bangalore in late 1970s there was no need for ceiling fans or ACs in the homes or the hostel where he was staying at that point of time. A friend from Coimbatore made a comment that in the last almost two centuries this year is the hottest for Coimbatore. The summer rains in Coimbatore have become history, though occasionally it rains in Bangalore. The Pune of 1970s had given way to a place which without an air-conditioner in almost all rooms you cannot survive the summer months of April and May. The queen of Deccan known for its salubrious climate has become a hot bed except for the two months of December and January. Bangalore’s explosion of population and building construction is a world record and unmatched the world over. Coimbatore known as a place with the maximum temperature in the worst summer to go to about 33 degrees Celsius has become a city of history. Why this change in the climatic conditions of these places known for their salubrious climates and places most sought after by one and all to spend their retired life?
We seem to forget that we are responsible for all this denuding of the forests and tree cover which reduces the rain fall over the years. The rain fall in almost all the cities listed above had their tree cover go down by almost 50 to 60% in the last three decades. The degradation that had happened resulted in mushrooming of concrete buildings everywhere dotting the landscape in all these cities. The places that I remember from my first visit to Coimbatore about 4 decades back are full of buildings totally unrecognisable. The places which had total tree coverage with either coconut gardens, banana cultivation or areca nut etc. had given way to buildings. The huge individual villas that were dotting the old city area which were once considered elite area had lots of tree surrounding the villas. Now the villas are a few with many multi storey office complex or residential apartments in their places. The trees had given way to the concrete pavements around the building for smooth driveways. This has prevented the rain water from seeping into the ground around the building. The level of ground water is now totally depleted. Even at 450 feet there is not enough water to sustain the complex having about 48 to 60 apartments in the complex.
With low rain fall due to very few forest cover on the mountains surrounding the city, and the ground water depleting with no recharging mechanism available in the sudden downpour occasionally, the water scarcity is looming large over the city not just this summer months but in the years to come. Similar is the case in the other cities mentioned above. The tree cover and the large villas with trees surrounding them have given way to concrete buildings and concrete pavements with the same result. When are, we going to stop this mad rush for building these monsters replacing the tree cover? The day is not far off when we may have to buy air for breathing.
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