As an avid reader of research journals and articles and the inquisitiveness of the mind in correlating many aspects of our existence in this beautiful planet earth, a burning topic and an issue which most of great minds and intellectuals are trying to monitor and formulate action plans is our increasing urbanization. Many urban scientist and researchers have defined the term in many ways taking into many parameters such as lifestyle, populations growing cities etc and in such process many Urban jargons have evolved, to name a few of the so called urban jargons Urban Crime, Urban Governance, Urban poor, Urban Climate, Urban Societies and many more.
A famous quote that I came across while reading an article which says “Urbanization has lured more people to bustling metropolises, but precious little thought has been given to what happens when these cities fail. Over time, the underlying systems and processes of civilization – from lead mining to offshore drilling to car commuting – slowly poison us. Power grids brown out, the climate heats up and industrial accidents ravage ecosystems and cities alike. For all the famed cities with thousands of years of continuity – Paris, London, Cairo, Athens, Rome, Istanbul – most cities just stop.” - Ben Paynter
A famous quote that I came across while reading an article which says “Urbanization has lured more people to bustling metropolises, but precious little thought has been given to what happens when these cities fail. Over time, the underlying systems and processes of civilization – from lead mining to offshore drilling to car commuting – slowly poison us. Power grids brown out, the climate heats up and industrial accidents ravage ecosystems and cities alike. For all the famed cities with thousands of years of continuity – Paris, London, Cairo, Athens, Rome, Istanbul – most cities just stop.” - Ben Paynter
Reading the quotes between the lines what struck me most is that what really happens to an urbanized city if the dynamic process of urbanization creates a bottleneck and as such that the carrying capacity of the city fails to support the inescapable growing population and Ubanization. It is a clear picture when we observe the present dynamics of any metropolitan city no doubt they are facing issues of local climate change, air pollution, water issues, settlement issues etc. Speaking of our own beautiful city Shillong a city which I feel has a uniqueness and charm of taking and pulling peoples heart making them miss when they leave the city. As a daily commuter to and fro from my home to the work place I came across people speaking about our lovely city Shillong, it gives an immense happy feeling hearing it from them saying that what a beautiful city you have and you are really blessed. Friends and folks from other metros too who have hardly visited any North East state the first place they wanted to know and visit is Shillong city and no doubt we are so bless to have many musicians and international groups performing in the city thus giving the sobriquet “rock capital of India”, it is a huge pride for us all and we should feel proud about it. This is one of the many aspects that our cities have given us.
So now a question is that despite of the many scintillating facts about our city, are we being ignorant of the many issues that the city is facing or are we just basking in the pride that the city had given us. No doubt a common man observation would give huge negative feedbacks on the present issues of our lovely Shilong City. The fact to strongly emphasize is the care that we should be having, the spirit of being stewards and inculcating earth stewardships. The city have given us many aesthetic values which we cannot repay back and what is required on our part is that we give back something to the city in a small way but having a great impact.
Coming back to the other important issue is about our Urban Greens that the city has, Urban Greens are nothing but the green cover of our lovely city, and the other terminology that relates to Urban Green is Urban Forest, the trees and green vegetations covering the city. The subject matter came into the limelight as I was reading about Urbanization and Climate change and their impacts, the inquisitiveness grew more and more and for a second a question struck why not understand it and perhaps view it. As an expert on such subject matter I used my attained skills to know and it lead to using the free source application Google Earth for viewing the green cover of our beautiful city. A general observation shows that with the increasing development, the green covers are slowly depleting.
A point to be highlighted is that do we really want our city green covers to be taken away, we cannot deny the fact and we cannot escape development but what on our part are we doing to nourish and to replenish the green covers. If one would really keenly observe, the city also has its beauty because of the green covers. There are many values that the Urban greens gives to a city dweller, it controls air pollution, controls and regulate climatic factors such as temperature and many other environmental benefits.
With the New Shillong Township plans coming up and also the recent announcement of SMART CITIES plans by the Government under the esteemed leadership of our PM, Narendra Modi, which is a part of an urbanized process, There is a big concern that our state leaders should be open to with the concept of sustainable designing and inclusion of Urban forestry or Urban greens because of the benefits that they can bestow.
Nevertheless our beautiful Shillong and its natural beauty has given us so much we are very much obliged and it’s a compulsory duty for us to contribute and returned back something so as to keep the enthralling charm shining ,just as the famous scientist Albert Einstein said “Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.” Let us also look deep into the environmental values that our City has given us.
“Let us direct our desire for a better world into the earth itself.”
— Carol L. MacKay
Comments
Post a Comment