Open War

The exhibition at the 225-acre Mahalaxmi Race Course in the weekend is the culmination of a four-year effort at documenting 1000-odd open space reservations earmarked in Mumbai’s Development Plan (DP). It has been all put together by Citispace’s Parul Kumtha,a conservation architect,along with a group of 40 architecture and law students.

From surveying DP sheets and filing queries under the Right to Information Act,to using satellite images from Google Earth,the group visited each of the spaces,profiling the landscape and its use,preparing sketches and taking photographs.

The meticulous exercise resulted in a concise,detailed factsheet on each of Mumbai’s 24 civic wards.

“We realized that of the 2000-odd plots earmarked in the DP as recreation grounds,playgrounds,parks and gardens,merely a fourth has been acquired by the municipal corporation. Of the land that is with the BMC,several are anything but open spaces even as the DP shows them as large green patches on paper,” said Kumtha.

Leave alone the international scale,even when compared to other metros such as Delhi,Chennai and Kolkata,Mumbai fares the worst in availability of open spaces,Citispace co-convener Nayana Kathpalia points out.

While norms prescribe an open space requirement of 4 acres per 1,000 people,Mumbai has a pitifully low 0.03 acre for the same population. To drive home the point,Citispace has graphically depicted availability per person. The ratio scaled down on an individual level means that each person is entitled to a space of 13 ft x 13 ft while actual availability is as little as 13 inch x 13 inch. “If the municipal policies aimed at further gobbling up large open spaces are pushed through,this space will not enough to set one’s foot on,” said Kathpalia.

Kathpalia added that the aim of the exhibition is to arm citizens with information they can use to protect spaces in their neighbourhood. To inspire confidence in people,the exhibition features a series of citizens’ initiative across the city. Beginning from South Mumbai,where the Save Rani Baug association and Dadar Parsi Colony residents have scuttled the civic body’s plans to reduce open spaces in the name of beautifying the Byculla zoo and Five Gardens,it goes on to chronicle residents’ battles against powerful private clubs and builders. These include the fight put up by Bandra East residents to gain unrestricted entry into the MIG grounds and the activism of a few citizens in Powai against a builder for enclosing public open spaces and allowing access only to plush housing societies. “Reclaiming these open spaces may be a slow process but ordinary people are enthused enough when it comes to asserting their right to such spaces,” said Kathpalia.