How builders devoured Mumbai's green spaces exploiting govt policies

In 1991, an important legal principle evolved. This happened through the landmark ruling given by the Supreme Court in the case of Bangalore Medical Trust. In this ruling, the Supreme Court set a binding legal precedent related to preservation of urban green spaces. The Court held that protection of the environment and evolving open spaces and gardens are matters of great public concern.
This ruling set in motion several other court decisions. The primary inference was four-fold. First, for gardens and open spaces, the 'Doctrine of Public Trust' would apply, since the public have got a right over the air. Second, the fundamental right of "Right to Life" under Article 21 of the Constitution was extended to gardens and open spaces. Third, the principle of ‘Non-Regression’ was applied which states that once environmental laws, regulations, or protections are set in place, they cannot not be weakened or reversed.
Fourth, the principles of ‘Inter-Generational Equity’ got evolved, whereby it was held that every generation holds the Earth in common. Thus, an unflinching obligation lay on the present generation for the preservation of the environment for the future generations.
Unfortunately, when these eminent legal principles were going north, the actualities were moving south. As the real estate boom was set to be triggered, powerful lobbies of Builders started governing the scene from the back- door. For them, the key to profits lay in the destruction of open spaces and gardens. And for this, a cleverly crafted rhetoric was created.
The government policy roared – redevelopment and rehabilitation were the burning need of the hour for social equity. But, in actuality, these rhetorics were driven by the extraneous motives of Builders to draw huge Floor Space Index and thereby mint enormous sums of money – all at the cost of environment and "Right to Life" of the Mumbaikars.
But the undesirable result of such noble-sounding assertions was the near destruction of open spaces required to be maintained within the building layouts. So, while the Development Control Regulations stipulated that for large layouts, a garden space of 25% of the plot area had to be maintained, and further that large open spaces had to be maintained around the buildings as setbacks, in the name of redevelopment, this was brought down to such levels that it would make it biologically impossible to maintain green spaces and plant trees thereon.
Thus, garden areas within the large layouts were reduced from 25% to 8%. Open spaces around the buildings, which ought to have been ranging from 12 metres to 20 metres and even more, were brought down to as little as 1.5 metres. Even for the reduced garden area of 8%, it could be placed on the side, rear and front open spaces. Besides such reduced garden area of 8% was permitted to be placed on the concrete of the podium tops and even the roofs.
The existing trees which were on the public roads and in the appurtenant open spaces, started dying as their roots were cut for the purpose of piercing shore piles at the edge of the plot. Old trees within the layouts were cut. Even the trees on public roads were cut to create access roads. In several cases, urban jungles, which existed in the erstwhile large layouts were removed.
And far worse, many trees even on public roads, their growth retarded and some even started dying as the giant and long buildings on both sides of the roads created valleys where sunlight would reach onto the trees only for a little time. And if sunlight is blocked onto an existing tree, it would be like infusing it with a slow poison. It derailed the mandate of the law to have one large indigenous tree every 10 metres. If one moves around in Ghatkopar and in Khar areas, the glimpse of this phenomenon is conspicuous.
Other areas of the city will soon catch-up with them. The urban jungle which dotted the MIG Colony of Bandra East, which lies within the “Hazard Line” demarcated by the Survey of India, was replaced by the concrete jungle. Similar things happened to the urban jungle at Azad Nagar, Wadala. So many erstwhile factories and Cotton Textile Mills, which nestled amidst trees, have been converted into sheets of concrete.
Unfortunately, for the activists, they became victims of misplaced strategies and myopic vision. While millions of trees were compromised due to builder indiscretion, the activists could not look through this vicious game. Their glimpses got restricted to just a few thousand trees affected by public projects such as the metro.
Charles Dickens in his book Oliver Twist had written – ‘law is an ass – an idiot’. And when the tool of purposive interpretation of law is sacrificed by powerful people with vested interests, the result could be devastating. Indeed, the powerful rhetoric of the redevelopment game, speaks the half-truth. If full-truth is spoken, it would become a falsity.
(Abha Singh took VRS from Civil Services to be the voice of silenced women and marginalised communities. She practises in Bombay High Court and is known for her activism and blunt stand)