Over the years Gurgaon has lost massive tree cover. In Feb 2021, newspapers reported that our city has only 3% of its area under green cover. Worried for diminishing greens and devouring pollution, search for legitimate land banks began.
The green belt along the GCER and the area next to Espace Gate and the main road are two such legitimate areas. One was a dump yard and the other occupied by sofa makers, car mechanics, scrap dealers, sabzi mandi, Pan, flower, chai, juice, biryani wala.
Volunteers including Nirvana residents got clarity on land ownerships, markings, permissions, encroachments, government plantations with tree guards, monitoring, watering, manuring and someone got pipes and some paid for the Mali.
Of the 250 odd trees that were planted in a span of 3 years, only 30 survived.The 220 died due to anthropogenic reasons – presence of C&D waste in place of soil, theft of tree guards exposing them to grazing, slashing, waste or sewage discharging. Waste, neglect and lack of funds were multiplying.
Come March 2024 , a fresh turn of event churned up all. Our RWA president with utmost grit and gumption got the Encroachers removed by the government agency . All those backed by the local rent collecting goons were made to vacate the legitimate green space.
The entire team assembled once again and this time involved the entire community who were not abstemious when it came to funding the cause, donating time, network, knowledge, experience. A chunk of amount enough to clean, enrich , plant , care and sustain the area has been collected. The accounts have been properly made and are ready for inspection at any hour.
For now, the entrance of Nirvana from GCER an area of 90 mtrs in length and 15 mtrs wide has been reclaimed. 80 pits have been dug , enriched with bagasse / dung / soil / brown leaves , planted with Gulmohar trees ( governments saplings ), watered from a governments recycled water pipeline connection. For next 2/3years , they shall be carefully monitored.
This activity of just 80 saplings in a small area just set the precedence of how greening the green areas can be achieved on a larger scale that our city soo needs. GMDA has a network of 300 km in the City synonymously lined with encroaching green belts on both the sides with a message for all – “ until you dig a hole , you plant a tree ,you water it and make it survive , you haven’t done a thing”
