Mumbai: Bandra Residents Launch Movement To Save And Revive Green Spaces In Queen Of Suburbs

Mumbai: After Bandra Fort Garden, Bandra (W) residents have initiated their fight to save Mehboob Studio Chowk from cutting of trees in the name of beautification. These individual instances have inspired a public movement in the queen of suburbs where residents are visiting different gardens in the locality and making a list of required upgrades which are later sent as recommendations to the municipal corporation.

Last week, various citizens of Bandra and environmental activists wrote to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation against the concretisation and reduction of greenery at the 17th century heritage Bandra Fort garden. The citizens listed their observations and demands to retain the old heritage feel of the garden.

Following the call to save the heritage garden, citizens have now shifted their focus to Madhukar Kulkarni Udyan, commonly known as Mehboob Studio Chowk. The outrage is against a poster erected in the area which proposed beautification of the park and reducing the size of the park. The citizens have opposed the idea of cutting fully grown trees and increase concrete structures by removing grass and shrubs.

The letter which was endorsed by 130 people suggested the BMC to improve traffic management and imposing fines on illegal parking instead of reducing the size of the park. It also claimed that the traffic congestion coming from Lilavati Hospital will decrease after multiple branches of coastal road will open up.

Natasha Pereira, a resident of Bandra who is a part of this movement, said, “Bandra was a beautiful locality until five years ago but now all our parks are slowly being concretised in guise of beautification. We do not tolerate this and will not let BMC downgrade the locality by destroying the greenery spaces.”

The initiatives to save the Bandra Fort Garden and Mehboob Studio Chowk has inspired a citizen led movement to save the existing green spaces in Bandra and revive the green spaces which have been concretised. A group of active citizens have been attracting more locals to join discussions about various parks in the locality.

These discussions are not limited to the WhatsApp group as these citizens have started visiting these parks on Sunday mornings after which they are making a detailed list of required upgrades in the park and are later sent to the BMC as recommendations. The citizens had visited the Mehboob Studio Chowk on Sunday and wrote to the BMC about their recommendations on Wednesday.

This initiative saw a huge success with the BMC’s proposal to construct an underground parking lot under the Rapsaheb Patwardhan Park in Bandra. Following opposition from the residents, local MLA Ashish Shelar who had initially proposed the underground parking, ultimately recommended to withdraw the proposal.

Currently, Bandra residents are looking at Bandstand Park A, I Love Mumbai park on Bandra Reclamation and the junction of Turner Rd and Waterfield Rd, all of which have been concretised by removing grass and soil. These citizens plan to take on all the parks one after another and revive the old charm of the queen of suburbs.

Naazish Shah, the secretary of Rizvi Complex ALM and a resident of Bandra (W), said, “In name of beautification they are finding excuses to concretise everything. This is happening in the whole city where the authorities are thinking in a way that development means only highways, buildings and malls. This citizens’ movement is an attempt to change people’s mindset by hammering them with such issues.”