VIZAG matters - Sohan Hatangadi's Blog

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 ha...

VIZAG'S BLACK NIGHTMARE Talk to anyone in Vizag and the single most irritating thing about living here is the ubiquitous coal dust pollution. This fine black powdery substance rises silently, like a ghost, from the port area and spreads its dark tentacles all over our city. It affects all of Vizag, from the densely populated old town in the South to the upmarket areas in the North of Vizag. As homes are swept each morning one can see the black powder accumulating on the floor at the end of the broom and our laundry on the clothes line is streaked brown by the time it dries. It settles on our cars and bikes and on our skin as we drive near the port area. Much of this pernicious dust gives us itchy eyes, allergic sniffles and most seriously finds its way into our lungs making us susceptible to respiratory infection and worse. Historic problem Vizag’s citizens have suffered due to this dirty cargo for years, they have complained, protested, objected, opposed, moaned, groane...