For the greater "commons" good

I am in Mangalore as I write this. It’s a beautiful early summer morning. The air is light, the light is soft and the twin brothers of heat and humidity are yet to sink in. I write this from the balcony of my friend’s 10th storey apartment.

When I look east wards, I see a series of rolling valleys one after the other, the ridges punctuating these. The development on the ridges stand out – a motley of independent homes and some very tall apartments. Tall apartments are more common here than in other places in the state probably because of the non-availability of relatively flat land and the higher costs of going horizontal in a highly contoured topography. The valleys are more interesting – the sign of developments here are typically Mangalore tiled roofs nicely camouflaged by the greenery with the odd wood fire smoke wafting out that always reminds me of my own ancestral home in Kerala.

Now it is the valleys that interest me. To an untrained eye with a tilt towards understanding geography, it seems like a huge repository of ecological wealth. It buzzes with avian life and I am sure the soil must be rich in nutrients giving rise to the thick foliage. Signs of domestication of these valleys are quite apparent with coconut and areca nut farms interspersed with a dense cover of trees.

In an ever expanding city like Mangalore – the question is this. Do we not, as a society, have the responsibility to preserve these valleys? Due to the fact that most of these lands are under private ownership, a owner would typically question the fact as to why he should be deprived of making commercial use of his land. It is here that we need to have sensitive governance. Isn’t it possible for the state to explore different options that compensate the owners of these lands while helping retain the heritage – a heritage that does not just make a pretty picture from a tall apartment but also saves the local ecology!

Or is that we are all waiting for the arrival of the “Silent Spring” in the words of Rachel Carson.

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