The green drain

It was environmentalist (Retd) Lt Col Suresh Patil who pioneered the nala garden concept in the city in 1994. He had spent Rs 33,000 from his pension money to kick-start the project. Today,the overgrown and badly kept Salunke Vihar nala,Patil’s brainchild,is dying. “After taking care of the nala garden for a year,I had to hand it over to the PMC. The civic body did take good care of the garden for a year or so but later it withdrew funds as for them the cost to maintain the garden was high. If you walk by the garden,what meets your eyes is a dirty,unkempt stretch. The watchman is missing. The grass is overgrown and litter is all over the place,” he says.

The nine-km-long Bhairoba nala,which was landscaped jointly by the PMC and Green Farms in 1994,also faces a similar fate. Though the proposal was to cover the entire stretch,only a two-km-stretch was done owing to lack of funds. Now,even this two-km-stretch is neglected. “The Bhairoba nala crosses upper Kondhwa,NIBM Road,Salunke Vihar,Satellite Township and comes to Bhairoba nala police chowkey,Empress Garden then crosses Sopan Baug and joins Mula Mutha in Koregaon Park.

Horticulturist Yashwant Khaire,who launched the Parvati nala garden project and has been actively expanding it,says,“The inherent space around nala is the perfect place for slums to grow and the land happens to be a no man’s land. If something as constructive as nala garden is created around the place,the first thing you can get rid of is the dirt around. Once a nala garden is created,the whole place is transformed into a green zone. Also,it is cost-effective. The nala water is good for plants and they grow seven to eight times faster. This also stops the water from reaching the river,thus checking contamination of the river.”

However,Patil agrees the nine nalas that the city has should have been taken care of by government bodies. Almitra Patel,solid waste management expert,agrees,“People are talking about implementing this in New Delhi,but Puneites embraced the concept long back. It is sad that the PMC is not encouraging such a fruitful concept.”

Patel and Patil said some stretches that are well-maintained are the Moreda nala garden and the Osho ashram in Koregaon Park. “While the Osho stretch is funded by the ashram people,the Moreda one is under the cantt board.”