Saturday, June 4, 2011

Going green, the Akshaya way

Akshaya Homes plan to plant a tree for every flat they build this year. Their chairman Chitty Babu, conscious of the shrinking urban lung space to which property developers contribute, is quoted in The Hindu as saying they need to compensate by, what he called, creating 'green buildings'. Akshaya claims to have planted 10 trees on the public space around every housing project they develop.
As a resident of Mantri Synergy I believe we can do with a lot more trees in our complex. Eco-friendly tree cover is an issue that can't be left only to the corporate landscape planners and architects. They adopt quick-fix mode to create overnight green-cover. The trees they bring for transplanting may look good in a picture post-card. But they don't provide the shade or the cooling effect the residents look for. Landscape architects don't live in the projects they design.
I guess I speak for many Mantri residents when I say 1) much of the open space we have is all concrete and tiles; and 2) the monotonous expanse of the tiled space needs to be punctuated with holes to plant leafy trees that provide much needed shade. For instance, the tiled driveway, from the main gate to Block H, can do with a row of trees (and it is, for most part, broad enough for tree-planting).
Park benches in the front lawn can do with some shade cover from trees . Trees prescribed for by corporate landscape designer leave much to be desired when it comes to providing shade all day long for the bench-users. I suggest we contact Nizhal for guidance.
Mantri's corporate social responsibility should focus on their customers, most of whom are here to make Mantri Synergy their home. We could make a start by planting a sapling to celebrate the birth of the first child in our complex - a baby boy in the Chakaraborti family at F 904.
May I suggest: 1) We mark out spaces in Mantri Synergy for 'community tree-planting'. The space is to be used to plant saplings to celebrate special occasions in our residential community. PropCare could survey the complex and identify tree planting space, in consultation with resident representatives.
2) Let us designate a day every month (say, the first Sunday of the month) for community tree-planting. On this day we plant saplings to celebrate special family event/occasions that happened the previous month in the Mantri Synergy residents community. We plant saplings in celebration of a wedding and birth anniversary, success in exams, career placements and promotions . Given the will to plant trees, we can invent umpteen reasons for doing it. At our previous residence in Mysore my wife and I planted a sapling on Ugadi Day a couple of years back (to mark our grandson joining play-school in California).
Bottomline is Mantri Synergy, when all its 700 plus apartments get occupied, would have twice as many air-conditioners, adding to the green-house effect. Property developer and the residents alike must own up their responsibility ; and take action, by way of compensatory tree planting for having put in place 1,500 plus air-conditioners.

2 comments:

  1. Nice idea! =) although I dont live in Mantri synergy , I find ur ideas and the blog interesting.

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  2. Says Mr Senthil in an e-mail,about the possibility of 1500 ac and its impact on environment:"A nice way to counteract is plant trees.I wish we could create an environment of mini forest in smaller area at least with wild growth of plants embedded within it a mystery, unlike the ordered landscape whose primary concern is beauty".

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