Let there be development

There lived a few trees on the side of the roads in the place where I live in Chennai.

Famous landmarks of Chennai like Ashok Pillar, Kasi theatre and Udayam Theatre are situated in this area. Roads were too small for the ever increasing vehicle population of the city. Every day one new model of car is rolled out by the Car manufacturers. From Tata to Ford to Fiat to Suzuki, everyone has a new car to offer every day. The middle class of this rich country is confused. Which car to buy?

At the end of the process of pick and choose and trial runs they buy a car- a luxurious head turner. No one wants that tiny Nano. It is poor man’s car. What about owning a bicycle? You will be looked down upon derisively by even the poorest of the poor then.

Swelling of vehicle population in our city made the authorities to think of more and more infrastructure development. They thought of fly overs. Metro rail.At last if metro has arrived Delhi, can Chennai be left behind? Thus, metro work had started. The progress of the work is phenomenal. The targeted date of completion is 2013. The only hindrance the authorities faced was the number of trees living on the road sides.

The problem is solved. We have wide roads and in the middle of these roads, there comes up the metro rail. When the development is at its peak, what business do these trees have? What business do those hundreds of birds who make their houses on these trees? They must understand one thing. They are living in a civilized society. Without development, this world cannot progress.

In Bangalore too, development has touched its crescendo. Recently I traveled on the roads of Bangalore. Metro rail at many parts are almost completed. In other parts, work is on war footing. On the Magadi road, the development is in the form of widening the road. For this, a number of trees were already removed. All these trees had a minimum diameter of one meter.

Madiwala in Bangalore had a good cover of greenery just one year back. There is an Ayyappan temple closer to the bus stop at Madiwala. Just in six months, all the big trees were removed and even an underpass has been constructed there. In several other parts too, hundreds of trees were removed and wide roads are laid. Now vehicles can fly on the roads, without even bothering much about the green-amber-red signals. Zebra cross? what's that?

There is no basis in the claim that trees are essential to maintain Eco-system. I have lived in the deserts of Syria, for six months. I never found any shortage of clean air there. The air had sufficient amount of oxygen too. We received abundant quantity of water, that had been transported from somewhere by tankers. Just open the tap, water gushes out. We could use water for use and no use also. It rained many times in those deserts. There were no trees in those deserts, still all was well there. In deep sea too rain occurs.

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I strongly advocate development. I am convinced beyond any doubt that development is directly proportional to the number of trees cut.