Pucca pavements: an ecological hazard

The body tape cities are a new reality in countries like India taking shape due to the unwanted, irrational, excessive and haphazard city development. Even one step ahead, they can be called mummified cities. There are unregistered and unlawful residential colonies sprouting like mushrooms which are then recognized and licensed due to highhandedness, corruption and connivance of public authorities. These colonies have no proper parks, playgrounds, lakes, green lands and lush lanes. The trees on the sides of roads, streets etc are either felled or concrete platforms erected all around them. There is hardly a bare land left. But still scarce greenery does exist in the form of narrow strips of unused land on both sides of roads, streets etc with little grass or herbs. Even if small, such greenery and land strips are necessary for maintaining a tangible ecosystem. It provides with sufficient oxygen rich clean air however small; to breathe plus it also provides enough free space for absorption of rain water to keep the underground water level slush, viscous and barometrically compatible. Instead of increasing such greenery, nowadays highly unwanted so called developmental work like pucca pavements is being undertaken in the name of city beautification on a war footing which has resulted in the encroachment of this already scarce greenery and bare land. God knows only who decides this needless and harmful beautification drive? This seems to be the result of an unholy nexus amongst politicians, corporates, bureaucrats and technocrats and the motive behind such an activity may be the purposeful methodology aimed at embezzlement of public funds. This has had a disastrous ecological impact on the general biology and environment of the cities. This has led to the destruction of many life forms such as natural weeds, herbs, algae, fungi and many more in the botanical kingdom and countless animal species like earthworms, crabs, beetles, moths, maggots, crawlers, creepers, borers and microorganisms etc on the animal side plus it has also led to the depletion of water levels in city areas to limits beyond critical values. All this needs to be reversed and repaired immediately. Pucca pavements are a very big threat to the quantum of life of human, animal and plant descent. Instead we should have mandatory grass strips with other greenery superimposed. A critical ecological audit and an affirmative action is the need of the hour to stop this self destructive race to nowhere.