Becoming the city's aesthetic cynosures. M.A. Siraj tells you how the metamorphosis took place.
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Wastelands could be aesthetically transformed into parks
and could prove a boon for our town and cities. Legendary artist Nek
Chand’s Rock Garden in Chandigarh was the pioneering effort in this
genre of activity. However, his venture did not see immediate
replication, as most cities were in throes of massive changes in the
aftermath of Independence and Partition that sent an influx of refugees.
But of late, some attempts have succeeded in taking
the movement forward. Prominent among them is Osho Teerth in Pune’s
Koregaon Park. The tastefully laid out Japanese-style garden behind the
Rajneesh Ashram today stands as a significant milestone on this
trajectory. It was a piece of barren land with a black-sludge-carrying nala
running through it. A lot of used oil was also being dumped into it by
the nearby railway yard. The human waste from a nearby slum also
contributed to the putrid concoction. Residents in the surrounding areas
complained, but the Pune Municipal Corporation did not know how to
clean the mess up and restore life to the vacant land skirting the
Ashram.
But today, the area hosts the Osho Teerth, a
visual treat with a superabundance of verdure. Mangroves ring it all
around the periphery. Roses bloom and lotuses smile. Water streams
gurgle, fountains spray water and sprinklers kick up mist, allowing
sunrays to descend into a rainbow. The bamboo thickets attract birds,
and the lakes have swans floating on their silvery waters. A stream
cascades down into the pools which harbour fishes in myriad colours. The
view, for those who preserve the memories of the old site, is
particularly stunning from the monolithic stone bridges which run across
the central stream .
The change
The
Ashram management took over the place in 1989 and invited Shunyo
Foundation, a Japanese environmental firm, to revitalise the area.
Shunyo brought in Nihar, a Japanese landscape artist, to create a park
out of the wasteland.
The nala flowed from
north to south, discharging 500 gallons of water a minute at a
particular point. Nihar first raised a barricade to keep off the cattle.
It was then meshed off with iron grills to catch the floating solid
garbage once it entered the proposed park. The stream was then made to
course like a serpent over the land to allow maximum oxygenation of
water. It was planted with water hyacinth and stocked with fish such as
gambusia and silver carp which eat pollutants and mosquito larvae. It
was then passed through a sand filter. The oxygenation and filtering
made the water almost 90 per cent pure, perfectly okay for irrigation
and fish culture.
Nearly 50,000 truckloads of soil
was brought and dumped over the area. Local contractors were invited to
dump their debris to create hills and dales. Several huge rocks were
moved to the area and were chiselled into fine shapes. Trees and shrubs
that already existed on the site were pruned while some special trees
were brought in from Bangalore, Vadodara and Kolkata. Polished marble
slabs were kept underneath the canopy of trees to create corners for
meditation. Statutes of Buddha in meditative postures were installed at
key spots.
Helped by Pune’s salubrious climate, the
foliage blossomed into a thick vegetative cover. With fine hedges here
and pools and fountains there, the Osho Park serves as an inspiration
for creating an environmental project. It attracts over 1,000 visitors
on a week day.
Project coordinators say the key
element in the planning was slowing down the water stream in order to
allow the natural cleaning process to be re-established. According to
them, more the water is allowed to twist and turn during its running
course, more its capacity to regenerate itself and become clean.
The second experiment
Curiously,
the second experiment in the direction also comes from Pune. The man
behind the transformation is Peerpasha Inamdar, the secretary of the
Azam Campus which hosts nearly 25 educational institutions in the heart
of the city’s Cantonment area. While Azam Campus has itself seen a huge
transformation during the last two decades, some of the more picturesque
sights lie obscured by the campus wall. One is sure to let out a
wondrous gasp at the breathtaking scenery that may await people who can
just manage a peek out of the exits in the back wall. During the last
decade the Campus administration has turned a virtual municipal dustbin
of an area into a pleasing park.
It was practically a
no man’s land sandwiched between the campus backyard fence and a
congregation ground used only on two days annually. A 20-ft. wide canal
coursed through it bringing drinking water to the city of Pune from
Khadakwasla Dam on Mutha river. Boys from the nearby localities took a
dip into its cool and pristine pure water, least aware that the water
was meant for drinking purposes.
Inamdar eyed the
opportunity that lay just behind the campus he was transforming. He got
the area landscaped into a park. Canal embankments were planted with
grass. Trees were neatly pruned. Walls were painted with murals by
artists from the Fine Arts College on the campus. A couple of iron
bridges across the canal came in handy to connect with the campus as
well as enhance the looks. A couple of gazebos and a handful of stone
benches have altered the ambience beyond recognition.
Not
merely this, the iron bridges have enabled the college to put to use
this ground as a shooting range. What better use for a ground that lay
unused for 363 days of a year! Efforts paid dividends too. One of the
shooting trainees, Anisa Sayyed from the Girls College on the campus,
won the nation a gold medal in the 2009 Commonwealth Games.
Pune’s eyesores of yesterday are the cynosure of all eyes today.
The author can be contacted at maqsiraj@gmail.com
Source: http://www.thehindu.com/features/homes-and-gardens/gardens/then-a-wasteland-now-a-picnic-spot/article4814300.ece
