Stop layouts from destroying our rural landscape

STOP LAYOUTS FROM DESTROYING OUR RURAL LANDSCAPE

Ask anyone if they would like to live in a house surrounded by trees. Wherever they live nine out of ten would say “yes”.  Yet layout developers do not seem to understand the modern customer’s preference. As we drive through the countryside admiring the farms and tree-filled rural greenery we come across several brown layouts with great big arches and fancy names. These layouts are generally empty lands crisscrossed with fresh bitumen roads and devoid of trees or character. These layouts take the place of charming farm lands and mixed tree forests. We are losing thousands of acres of farm lands and green cover every year in the name of layout development.

Loss of tree cover

Developers buy 20 to 100 acres of farm land from farmers in the rural areas. These lands are generally full of shrubs, small trees and a few large ones. Some of the trees are 50 to 100 year old banyan, peepul, neem, tamarind, mango and jackfruit that have stood for decades generously offering their bounty to mankind. Along the boundaries of these farms one could find rows of stately “thati chettu” or palmyra palm, old photographs of north coastal Andhra show lakhs of these trees covering all of Vizag. What is left of these trees is still tapped for toddy and in summer yields the delicious “thati munjullu” or ice apple. Its wood is used for construction and its leaves for roofs of huts. Every year these native trees fall to the axe and large tracts of farm lands are levelled into layouts.

Use nature to enhance layout value

Rural lands in coastal Andhra typically are crossed by naturally formed nallahs and geddas that carry storm water through the land and into water bodies that dot the countryside. In nature these beautiful channels follow a gentle slope carved over centuries; their grass filled sloping banks are home to remarkable biodiversity. However with the indiscriminate flattening of land all the contours of the land that make it interesting and picturesque is gone. These nallahs are treated as dirty drains instead of valuable channels that can make interesting front yards for the plots. Keeping and enhancing the beauty of the channels will add value to the layout and plot buyers will be willing to pay premium.

Layout mania

This layout development mania is consuming our countryside. It is understandable if these far off layouts were being used for actual homes but most of the plots are purchased for long term investment and hardly anyone builds or stays there. The developer sells away the plots and exits the project to go elsewhere, buy more farm land and make another ugly layout. Meanwhile the layout which has already lost all its tree cover and an apology for a “club house” goes to seed. No one looks after the saplings planted there because the plot owners did not form an association to raise funds and maintain their layout. Eventually most of these layouts become ugly scars on our pristine farmlands.

The price we pay

Not only is the loss of endemic tree species a blight on our natural rural landscape, it also destroys good farm lands that feed us. Thousands of acres of lands that were used to grow cluster beans, brinjals, tomatoes, ladies finger, ridged gourd and fruits such as mango are lost. The farms move deeper into rural areas making the produce costlier to transport and therefore more expensive to the consumer. So while a few speculate on land, many have to pay more for the farm produce they need every day. One may say that this is the price of development. This is certainly not true, with proper legislation, change in developer’s attitude and pressure from buyers this situation can be corrected over time.

Save the trees

When the area is taken up for development the location of every tree worth saving must be located on a drawing. With a bit of imagination and help from specially developed software, the alignment of the roads can be drawn in a way that many trees can be spared. Suppose a tree comes in the middle of a planned road, the road can be widened at that spot and the tree can be left on a median or an island. Any tree which comes within a plot must simply be left there; some buyers may be willing to pay a premium for such plots. If some trees cannot be left in its present position it should not be cut but be shifted. Nowadays large tree relocation machines are doing just this. They dig around the tree without damaging the roots, lift the tree up and carry it to a new spot which is kept ready to accept this relocated tree. Type in “tree transplanting machine” or “tree relocation machine” on YouTube and you will see this machine at work. Just as developers rent JCBs or Poclains they can rent a tree relocation machine.

The role of regulating authorities

Layouts require approval from either Vizag Urban Development Authority (VUDA) or The Directorate of Town and Country Planning (DTCP) depending on where the layout is coming up. The DTCP uses the provisions of the APTP Act, 1920 to plan and regulate development of urban areas and AP Panchayat Raj Act, 1992 for rural areas. At the time these acts came into force the stress was on housing. Loss of trees and farmlands were not considered crucial. Now when our national objective is to increase green cover to 33% we cannot afford to lose even a single tree. Though the developers promise to plant new trees they will not be around to nurture the new plants once they exit the project. Individual plot owners will also not be ready to take the layout-wide responsibility of greening the layout unless they form an association quickly. The regulating authorities therefore must encourage forming of layout welfare associations so that the layout continues to be maintained after the developer leaves. At the time of approval the regulating bodies must ensure that the maximum number of trees is saved and that a corpus fund is available for maintaining new trees for 10 years.

Customer’s motto - any tree is better than no tree

Very few buyers of plots plan to build or stay there, yet mature trees are chopped down ruthlessly in their name to make way for a fruit trees in their plots. These fruit saplings when unattended die long before they yield fruit. In any case unless individual plots are walled the fruits may not reach our dining table. Therefore though fruiting trees are desirable the buyers of the plots should welcome any existing trees and should convey this to the developer. Objecting to the existence of a tree on grounds of Vastu is immature. Trees must get priority over or compliment Vastu. The Gods of nature will favour those who respect our trees. We, the plot buyers can make a change; saving even a few trees will be a great achievement and a legacy for our grandchildren.