Understanding Eco Tourism!

The sun, the moon and the stars would have disappeared long ago... had they happened to be within the reach of predatory human hands…Havelock Ellis

Recently I went through an article about Eco Tourism & its ill effect on the entire nature especially wild life! It was indeed very touchy & well covered thoughts about the impact of the entire tourist & their related activities on the surrounding natural habitat, but I will say we haven't yet understood the word Eco Tourism in real term! Its like the quote said, with which most of the environmentalists will agree yet we are seeing the wrong side of the coin is what I feel! First of all analyze that what ever we are doing is it really giving justice to the term Eco Tourism! Well just to go & enjoy our self on the back-ground of nature isn't Eco Tourism & that's what is happening right now here in our country! May it be Mr. Amitabh Bachhan appealing for Kutch Dessert in Gujarat Tourism advertise or may it be an Announcer assuring “Bagh Darshan” ( Tiger sighting) in Madhya Pradesh Tourism advertises! All we sale is nature & what most of the tourist will like to see & nothing to conserve it, is a fact. But isn't it wrong to tag the entire concept of Eco tourism as bad business than correcting our own steps?

In our country unfortunately making money is considered as serious crime & that's the main crux! When we say some thing as sustainable then it does include sustainable financially also & in Eco Tourism also there will be some factors where money is bound to get generated may it be resort owners or tour operators! If there is no proper infrastructure there won’t be tourist is a truth! I am from area close to Melghat, i.e. Northern Vidrbha forest which lays in Amraoti/ Akola districts of Maharashtra. Undoubtedly the best forest we have of Sag (teak) & land of tigers & many other species with vast area under the belt joining two states i.e. Maharashtra & Madhya Pradesh. Yet its with zero infrastructure except some resorts in Chikhaldara (a central place), with no Gypsy’s or fixed routes of travel within the forest, there isn’t any means of income available to local tribal i.e. Korku's & result is in last20 years immense forest cutting has happened as well once the tigers used to be roams freely all over nearly 2000 sq km, now you have to search for them or even sighting of chitals is getting rare! Very high rate of malnutrition amongst the tribal infants & poverty & illiteracy is all over the place. Still in this era the local weekly bazaars operates on bar-trading as money is scarce so people believe in commodity exchange. There isn't a petrol pump in hundreds of km leave apart good medical or educational infrastructure. Neither good doctors nor good teachers are ready to come here & work, spare a few NGO's! All this I don’t say because of lack of eco tourism but some where the facts remains as no one comes there, no one is interested in improving the area.

Eco tourism is never meant to harm the environment in any way but its in fact has to be developing an infrastructural support to the environment as well its conservation. The examples which the writer has given about the road construction in Gujrat, is the faulty execution of the wrong plan. Even in USA highways have been planned & executed through the famous Redwood forest where trees are over thousand years old & yet conserved properly. At one place they have cut the road through the huge steam of a redwood tree named “General Sherman" & it has become the center of attraction of all tourists. And yet no NGO or any conservationists have taken any objection, because it’s the way they have executed the entire activity. In USA week-end hiking or traveling in natural habitats is most common but the restrictions during such touring are extreme & the punishments are even more extreme if you fail to follow them! There are wardens not just in forests but even at natural habitats like water falls or mountains, who regularly rounds the terrain & they are them selves well trained as well armed to face any emergency or control the miss behavior of the tourists. In many States they have authority to arrest as well fine the tourists if found misbehaving with the nature & there is no body above the law, may it me some ministers family or any VIP traveling as a tourist, law is same for all & executed accordingly.

Even eastern countries like Malaysia have made great marketing of rain forests & converted them in a world wide popular tourism spot without harming the core of rain forest. And the money generated is being utilized for conservation of rain forests as well the tribes residing in that zone. We need to study the Eco tourism in other developed countries & how they control the ill effects of the same. In underdeveloped African countries also you are allowed to buy a piece of forest & convert them in ranches & resorts without touching a single tree & yet they have five star luxuries over there at such resorts. Such facilities which have made millions of foreigners to visit African forests which once considered as impossible to explore by any human being, leave apart outsiders of sophisticated world!

Most of us know the Do's & Don’ts while traveling in Eco sensitive areas but we all know that in our country there is no one to act firmly to stop us if we keep on doing even the “Don’ts " & can get away with such acts! It’s obvious that if we want more people to get exposed to such places we need infrastructure like roads & vehicles for the same. And there is always a balancing way to do it. The fact though are different, we have build High-ways & Rail-ways through the forests without keeping proper crossings for the animals living in surrounding forests. We didn't study the natural passes which the animals were using for years & cut through them causing equal or may be more deaths occurring of wild animals in road / rail way crossing than by the poachers! We don’t have proper signage for such spots to avoid accidents & a team backing to control these signage are being followed by the tourists. We allow building the resorts amidst the buffer areas of reserved forests or right in heart of some river bed & don't take any cognizance of the damage it makes on surroundings. Our norms of garbage as well waste water generation & treatment we can’t even follow & control in Metros so to follow the same in remote places is impossible. Though it’s very easy to lay a policy for the same & see that it’s strictly or else shut down the concerned resort. Any business generating money in Eco Tourism has to ensure employment of local peoples to lift their life style & contribute some part of their earnings in building social infrastructure in surrounding area. Taxation should be made accordingly for such business activities. Like in forests like Kanha spread over 1600 sq km, you don’t find a single plastic waste of water bottle such is the sensitiveness of the entire system towards the forest! Why this can’t be replicated all such tourism places & if Kanha can maintain it within the forest why can’t they have proper control on growth of resorts in buffer area? Our Tourism Development Corporations are interested mostly in acquiring the best places at such location & then lease it to private agencies & make money out of it. They can easily give the responsibility of controlling any activity which will hamper the nature. There should be single authority which will control any such development & for that first mark all such spots in the country may it be Forests or natural habitat like Kas platue at Satara or Valley of Flowers! Also efforts should be made to make affordable accommodations like youth hostels at such places. This will make Eco Tourism viable for even a common man which right now is restricted to mostly upper class only!

Joke is right now all the departments are making money out of Eco tourism yet no one is ready to take or has been given the sole responsibility of looking after the damage these activities are doing on the environment in itself! This is the defeat of Eco Tourism!

Actually the term includes not just promoting the tourists & make money but to utilize this money generated for the conservation of local people, trees, animals & entire surrounding by way of various activities which may be social, cultural as well infrastructural! This is how we should look at the term instead just blaming some people who may not be actually responsible for the damage directly it may appear but it’s the indirect fronts which are more important than the on face agencies!


--
Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

Envo-Power Committee, Credai, Pune

Please do visit my blog to know about our philosophy at Sanjeevani !

http://visonoflife.blogspot.com/

Social Side of Sanjeevani !

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/sets/72157628805700569/

For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below

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Expanding Bounderies of a City!

A plan is a list of actions arranged in whatever sequence is thought likely to achieve an objective… John Argenti

I wish this our city rulers understand & grasp is what come to my mind when I read the news making head lines about a subject as important as merging of adjoining villages in Municipal Corporation! First of all here one needs to understand the scenario on the horizon as a common man does get fooled up by controversial statements by all parties on the topic. Many will say what it has to take with real estate, what difference it makes whether any area lies in PMC or out of it?  As we keep on hearing that it will be advantageous to some political party & dissadventageous to other, have we thought what’s in benefit of the city as well the residents we are talking about? Well for that we need to understand the administrative structure of the system which controls development of the city & area adjoining to it. In 1995 the decision was taken to merge nearly 23 adjoining villages in PMC & then at end only 15 villages were taken making the present area of PMC as 243 sq km. And now the proposal has been put to acquire these villages again which has been demerged in 2001 with which the area of PMC will become more than 400 sq km, which will be at par with the cities of its size i.e. Ahmadabad or Bangalore, even Mumbai is 425 sq km. Its not just the area we are speaking about its the way we will be serving the area which we are acquiring. Here is where the administration controls come in the picture. Presently the area which we call PMC or Pune Municipal Corporation, here the governing body is PMC which has a structured system of administration & a budget to back up the basic infrastructure works which are essential to make the living of citizen comfortable. It includes basic things like water, drainage, roads, education etc. Here again many a will say is the PMC really giving it to the citizens? Well, there always will be some unsatisfied souls but those who want the answer they should visit adjoing areas of PMC & the visit will itself answer their question. Nothing wrong, it’s just the villages just don’t have a system to provide them the infrastructure. Grampanchayt’s who are supposed to take care of these basic infrastructure don’t have any such system. They are dependent on Zillah Parishads where funding is a constant problem & they too don’t have any engineering or planning department as in turn they are dependent on PWD i.e. Public Works Department, water supply & drainage is supposed to be done via Jeewan Pradhikarn & the overall control is with Collector for revenue matters & planning authority for these areas is Town Planning Department! Hussh, such is the maze of departments tangeled in each other workings in the system! Now you will understand the hurdles in development of the Villages in comparison to Municipal Corporation.

Since long the villages adjoining to the city were existing, not having any of such problems but in last decade the city lands started getting filled up with the buildings & slowly the boundaries between the main city & these villages started melting on site physically if not on record or on papers. For record purpose some land may be in village but on site it’s difficult to differentiate it away from the adjoining city. Gone are the days when you could identify the clear visual difference between city & village area. Now Baner & Balewadi & Sus have become look one single suburb, whereas record wise Baner & Balewadi are in PMC limit & Sus is in Collector limit & is a separate village ruled by Grampanchayat. Similar things have been happening on all the sides of Pune. And this phenomenon is common around all Municipal Corporations across the State. Basically the system of Grampanchayt has not been designed to take load of this urban growth. Things like Regional Plan are there covering basic road net work etc but like Development Plan in Municipal Corporations they are not done at micro level & there isn't any target to implement the same. So on one hand there are numbers of buildings coming up in village areas adjoining to the city limit yet there are not even very primary facilities like good widened roads or drainage lines or water storage tanks; leave apart recreational facilities or gardens! Nothing wrong in the Grampanchayat functioning, after all this system is there since British Raj & was running fine till 90’s & still running in areas away from Metro’s all over the country. It was fine till the villages were small settlements where land wasn’t a problem,  population was limited & most citizen were depending on farming for their live-hood this system was comfortable to take their daily need. But as the villages started getting merged physically with the cities & got development like a town even a Metro like in Pune the limitations of the system started getting exposed.

Here the conflicts started as there was basic social as well cultural difference in the setting of the two development. Many of the villagers feel that they will loose their identity if their village gets merged in Municipal Corporation. A Municipal Corporation on other hand has a much defined set up where all the infrastructural activities are being carried out under one roof & public body governs it which has got representation from all the classes of the society or at least that's what is supposed to be! Not only this but is one major aspect i.e. revenue generation as all these infrastructural activities needs huge amount of money. And in Municipal Corporation this revenue is being generated in form of Octroy, various Development Charges as well the Property Taxes which are being collected at one central place & utilized via annual budget. Again there is new avenue of funding in form of JNNURM i.e. Jawaharlal Neharu National Urban Rehabbitation Mission by virtue of which Municipal Corporations get huge funding for building up infrastructure in their jurisdiction from central Union Govt. Then there are sources like World Bank finance & even Private Public partnership projects.

All above things makes development possible in Municipal Corporation area much faster in comparison to Grampanchyat ruled villages. Now what difference this will make to real estate of the city is the question? Well in simple words there will be more land available where infrastructure will be in place making more options available on home front for the needy ones. This may lower down the demand in particular areas within existing Municipal limits & lowering the prices which are going sky high with each passing day. Day by day lands with infrastructure backing are getting scarce & yet the city is growing so instead of having thousands of homes where no proper social or physical infrastructure is available there can be at least hope for having more good quality homes. This is possible only if the Municipal Corporation boundary gets increased covering more area under its jurisdiction. I am not an expert or authority to comment whether merging of adjoining villages is right or wrong, all I can do is analyze the scenario & put forward the facts. Then again many will ask why in first place the villages were demerged from PMC? Well this column isn’t for political views as such decisions are being taken in our country not just keeping in mind city or citizens but for the sake of having control in ruling the system is an unfortunate fact.

Urbanization is world-wide a fact, especially in developing country like ours its happening more fast & in such times the rulers need to provide a system which will take proper care of this urbanization. And as the quote says for that we have to plan & put a system in place in the form of a ruling body, call it Grampanchyat or Corporation; tag isn’t important but the purpose for which the body has been formed definitely is!

--
Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

Envo-Power Committee, Credai, Pune

Please do visit my blog to know about our philosophy at Sanjeevani !

http://visonoflife.blogspot.com/

Social Side of Sanjeevani !

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/sets/72157628805700569/

For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below

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Think Green, Think Life

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Illegal Constructions & the City!

The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly...Abraham Lincoln

Each day when we read in news about some illegal construction has been noticed or demolished these words must be coming to the minds of a common man. Very recently there has been photographs of nearly ready to occupy buildings being demolished by Municipal Corporation squad & the ho-hallah it created amongst political circles as well in society. What I think is how the families who have booked flat in these buildings would have been feeling watching their home getting demolished. Many a may not be even knowing the reason for this action! Many will ask the questions like what authorities are doing till the construction is being done to this level & why not to prevent them before the work goes ahead at site? Well the answer isn’t that simple as it looks by the quote. First of all we have to understand what an illegal construction is & then we can ask why its happening & then we can use the preventive methods. Many a may not like my theory as it may sound like justifying the act but as I said it’s a multifold issue which needs to be examined from different directions. It’s like a cancer which shows up some where in body & the root cause is some where else.

An illegal construction is something which is build without taking proper clearances from the local governing authorities, is the very simple & clear definition. Unfortunate that most common people don’t understand the legalities of this permission process nor are very keen to get the knowledge about the same. City wise these governing authorities are different i.e. in Pune we have Municipal Corporation. Out of Corporation limits we have Collectorate & Town Planning & then there are Cantonments as well Municipalities at town level. Each these governing body have their own set of rules & regulation about the land use & construction on the same. Mostly at ever inch in our country we need to have take permission from such local authority before starting the construction & have periodical checking from them & obtain occupancy certificate before starting use of the construction we have done on the land. It’s a pretty standard & simple procedure I must say. All a customer has to ask for the developer is for sanctioned copies of the maps of his home & whether the home he is buying is as per these sanctioned maps or not! Though numbers of departments are involved in this process yet the sanctioning authority is single at every city or town & it’s their job to check the illegality involved if any before giving permission to any of the construction.

The illegality may be of two types on general basis, first is about the title of the land i.e. ownership & second is about the wrong use of the land for which it has been reserved. The first kind of illegality can be controlled right at the application level of the sanction as without proper ownership basis most of the authorities don’t entertain the application for the development of the land. Documents like 7/12 or property card, demarcation as well now many of them ask for search title report from advocate so as to avoid any future dispute about the ownership of the land. Yet the documentation of these things is a long & tedious process & there are many examples of litigation about the same. Any construction being done on a land of which ownership is in question is also an illegal construction. Adarsh scam which becomes head line of media can be called of this type of illegality i.e. ownership dispute between Military & Govt over the land on which the building has been built.

Another type is wrong use of the land other than for which it has been reserved for. Here again mostly all governing authorities has to have their master plan of land use within their jurisdiction like PMC has Development Plan or DP & Collectorate  /Town Planning have Regional Plan i.e. RP. In this plan all the lands coming under the area of jurisdiction is marked for different purposes by different color code. Usually yellow is for indicating residential zone & homes are allowed only in this zone. Majority of cases coming in lime light for illegality are in this category though usually a bit late. Reason is lacuna in the DP or RP as they are made of very small scale on drawings & at site the ground conditions may be different. For e.g. a river width marked on drawing may be less but at site it may be much bigger & vise versa. In such case any thing built at site when compared to the development plan may look like violation of the land use & which is true also in many cases. Here to stream line & simplify the sanctioning process of the projects & reduce the time involved in the same is also very much important. As the land is a costly affair each passing day making delay to the project is a pinch to the pocket of the developer & people do find short cuts to avoid such delays which in turns can lead to illegality is also a fact. All such things in turns make a legal home more costly in comparison to an illegal home. Also to take stringent & immediate action is equally important than to wait till the construction works gets completed at site causing major damage to life time savings of the people who have booked their homes in such project. Also the governing bodies can regularly publish list of constructions they have cleared; on their web site or in media to let the common man know whether the project where he has booked his home is properly sanctioned or not!

Now let’s see why some one tends to enter in to illegality & why it’s happening at first place? First again accept that all the city’s are growing & urbanization is the thing in. Majority of the village crowd is moving to the neighboring city’s & the change is very fast especially in last decade thus need of the homes grow at very high speed in city’s & when such need is there, its bound to attract all kinds of ill elements. We have observed in past about smuggling of gold & electronics goods in 80’s when these things were heavily taxed & out of reach of most commoners. Similarly the case is now about the home only unfortunate part is we cant import land neither can produce it in any factory here making the land as most sought after thing in Urban India. Land is basic raw product of housing industry & we have many departments as well laws governing use of the same. Categorily the land is being utilized for other uses also like Agriculture, Industrial, Recreation & many reservations from roads to water bodies & land is limited. A society can’t survive with just homes or buildings on it but it needs all above mentioned uses but considering the prime need utilizing the land for home making seems to generate maximum money as well it is in demand so most people wants to the land to be used for home making. Again the land which is supposed to be used for home making has certain requirements about the infrastructural facilities around as one can build a home in desert where land is in abundance but no one can go & live there. So there are some pieces of lands which are in more demand in comparison to other lands where the entire necessary infrastructure essential for living is available. Here is where we are total failure on creating the balanced infrastructure all around & within the city thus many people demanding the same location where all such things are available like shopping, schools & medical etc. The land is limited which has been reserved for building houses , yet demand is ever growing & its this demand which makes people start encroaching the adjoining lands which are reserved for other purposes or forge the documents of the ownership. I am not justifying the acts of people who usually are Builders; I am just stating the facts of illegality.

Unfortunate is this fight is between the people who wants to make money out of it & the governing bodies but the victim are innocent common men who got caught in between just to save few rupees, book their home in such constructions & ends up loosing that also. Only as they are a bit cheaper in compare to legal homes. The term affordable housing is just like a dream which will never gets fulfilled for these common men leaving them no option to opt for illegal construction to achieve their dream of having a home of their own is a fact. Though who don’t want to enter in such deals should keep their eyes open & deal with reputed names only & even then should get all the information of legalities involved & get the documentation part thoroughly checked by their own reliable sources. Even then some thing can go wrong & the Governing body can revoke their sanction itself like has happened in a case at infamous Prabhat road construction. But then that’s fate is all I can say; in most cases if we deal carefully then its always better to afford some delay in deciding than repenting later & curse the law & the system for what you suffered is the wise way to look at it! In all this what common man expects is some one should understand his needs & provide him just the four walls which he can call his legal home giving him his peace of mind.

--
Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

Envo-Power Committee, Credai, Pune

Please do visit my blog to know about our philosophy at Sanjeevani !

http://visonoflife.blogspot.com/

Social Side of Sanjeevani !

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/sets/72157628805700569/

For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below

http://www.punecorporation.org/GRS/Complaint/LaunchComplaintCitizen.aspx

Think Green, Think Life

www.sanjeevanideve.com

Learning from Disaster!

Failure is simply the non-presence of success. But a fiasco is a disaster of mythic proportions...Orlando Bloom

How perfect the words of great Hollywood star are when we read the news papers covering the infamous Mantralay Fire. Surprisingly many of the readers of our column have messaged me that this particular topic I should take keeping in mind the safety awareness of the buildings. Though I am not a safety expert or advisor yet safety is more a common sense when it comes to the buildings is a fact! With all due respect to the event as well the people who lost their lives & sure as usual the battle will go on for months about who was at fault & what should have been done yet when it comes to disasters its again proved how poorly we are placed in terms of infrastructure or action plan. Though one thing has to be complemented that at least more than 6000 people were there & majority of them could make their way out is a fact too. But loss of property & information in form of files & data, what about them? We have seen the footage of Japan's earth quake & the fires all over it caused & the way people faced it & the footage of our rulers head quarter! What a contradiction in the behavior! When there is a basic rule of not using lifts in case of fire still people were using lifts, such a mistake & no one to take a single point control or charge of the situation? Fire hydrants were too far away from such an important building & no fire water storage tanks for building as important as Mantralay!

To me there are two types in which we can categorize Disasters, man-made or created & natural! We all are helpless in avoiding the natural ones but the man made can surly be avoided at least the spread or damage of them can! Like occurring a fire is understandable enough but the cause why it occur & how it spread to such a large extent is definitely our own lacuna or ignorance towards this aspect.

On this back ground it’s interesting to see the scenario about the current building norms each building above 15 meter height i.e. more than four floors has to have two stair cases as well there are norms for building above height of 21 meters by virtue of which its mandatory to have a system of fire hydrant i.e. down take lines with fire hose reel at each floor & a underground as well over head water tank of capacity ranging from 10,000 lit to 50,000 lit depending up on the height of the buildings. High rise buildings i.e. above 24 meters height has to have fire pumps at ground level as well on terrace floor  & with separate electric supply of which electric meter is away from the regular meter boards. This is because of in case of fire first thing is to be done is shut of the electric supply & in that case the fire pumps should remain in operation. Also now the RCC frame work of the building too has to be designed pertaining the fire factor i.e. at least for four hours it should sustain the fire on parameter heat keeping in mind the structural stability. As this much time can be sufficiant to evacuate the building at such times.
 

For Commercial or Public  buildings like IT parks & Malls where central air conditioning has been provided the fire safety norms are more stringent with fire sensors & fire alarms with a net work of water sprinklers having supply from special fire water storage tanks is mandatory. There has to be smoke detectors as well camera surveillance as it’s the first few minutes right when the fire start are most important. It’s always easier to get the fire in control at its origin as the spread is small. Once it grows naturally its spread as well the heat the fire generates makes it more & more difficult with each passing hour to get control over it. By proper monitoring of the surveillance camera & smoke detectoers the fire can be immediately located & accessed. Also buildings with long & narrow passages for communication especially like Mantralay there has to be proper ventilation outlets as well fire exits at regular interval so the smoke can be drifted away as well people don’t have to cross a long distances at the time of disaster like fire or earth quake.  Periodical training to all the persons who are in any way related to the public building is a must thing. As one should not ignore even the slightest of smoke or any such thing if observed & here the training comes in picture.

Though we are not here to criticize Mantralay fire of Govt what we need to learn from this while buying any property may it be a commercial or residential, it’s very important to understand these norms for your own safety & ask the developer what care he is taking for the same. As I have repeatedly mentioned in this column, we are too fussy even buying vegetables but when it comes to home we are just looking for rate, location & superficial amenities & not the basic things like safety which are actually far more important in long term. And it’s not just the developer who is responsible as he may provide all the safety norms but if the residents don’t keep the same in maintained condition & are ignorant about the same, then also it’s a failure in case of disaster. I have observed in many of the societies the wiring isn’t tested for years & the fire hydrants have never been operated making them get locked in case of emergency. All such machinery/systems has to be periodically maintained & tested & that’s job of the people who resides there.

Btw just a thought, had such fire happened at any factory or commercial place then the owner of the place would have immediately charge sheeted by the police & all the Govt depts. & by now  the poor owner would have been behind the bar for negligence & all such charges, so whom they will be arresting in case of Mantralay fire? It’s easy to blame the Govt but how many of us have a proper well filled fire extinguisher in our home? We spend lacs of rupees on our interior but I have rarely seen a fire extinguisher in any of the home. How many of us have given training to our staffs or considered this aspect in our private offices? Or how many of us have gone up to the over head water tank of our building where we reside & check the connections & condition of water storage of fire water tank? Fire is just one cause of a disaster; there can be flood or earth quake or terrorist attack, have we prepared our self for the same? Sadly the answer is a big No !

Here we need to understand that safety is an attitude & not just a term! It’s our own attitude which will be deciding our faith at the time of such disasters, so instead blaming who is wrong & how to get aware about the place where we live or work & ensure that we live in a safe & healthy life without making us regret later is the right way to deal with Disasters!

Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

Envo-Power Committee, Credai, Pune

Please do visit my blog to know about our philosophy at Sanjeevani !

http://visonoflife.blogspot.com/

Social Side of Sanjeevani !

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/sets/72157628805700569/

For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below

http://www.punecorporation.org/GRS/Complaint/LaunchComplaintCitizen.aspx

Think Green, Think Life

www.sanjeevanideve.com

Fitness of Home! ( gharacha fitness)

The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned...Maya Angelou

Well the sentiments of the African socialist get perfectly reflected from the quote about the feelings of most of us towards the four wall which we call home but how safe is this home of ours, we rarely ask this question to our own self! Many will wonder with the heading of the write-up as fitness is the term used for living creatures where as a home is made up of bricks & concrete so how the term fitness can be tagged with home?

Well we need to understand attitude of the most people towards their home. We usually go with the aesthetics of any thing why home & when we call some thing as a good home it’s mainly the interiors, color scheme, furnishing etc. But we rarely look towards the strength or durability of home. Neither we are interested in this aspect while buying the home nor afterwards is my experience with most of the home buyers. Rarely I have faced the questions on this front of home i.e. what is the strength of concrete, which type of cement has been used & how we confirm the strength of the frame work of home. And let me remind you one need not have to be an engineer to ask these questions. Even when we buy a car or a two wheeler we ask the questions like what’s its engines cc or mileage or average & things like that but when it come to a home we turn a blind eye on our curiosity! I often wonder what happens to most of the customer when they are buying a thing like home which is supposed to serve their generations; we are least interested to things which in later years are going to contribute towards the term fitness of their own home!

As solid & durable home has to be made accordingly then only it will be giving us the least maintenance. The frame work has to be with proper strength of concrete as well properly cured & the masonry work along with door & window frames firmly fitted making a monolithic structure together. Then only it can stand fit for years. Interiors & paints are after all like a make up on a face but the skin as well the bone structure of the home has to be strong enough then only the make will look good is a fact which we ignore. Many a times we have seen cracks in even new home wall & we wonder what’s the reason? In our city most of the plaster work is done with sand which has major amount of the clay in it & it’s this clay which produce cracks after some time because of temperature difference in the surrounding. Not that these cracks are structurally dangerous but they look ugly giving unfit look to the home at the same time they do became main cause for water seepage in rainy season damaging the paint as well interior look of the home. This is just one example of unfitness of a home.

In many recent projects we must be seeing a line about Earth quake proof design, actually nothing is earth quake proof; earth quake resistant is a proper term. As per the IS code for buildings there are many parameters & the whole world has been divided in five zones of earth quake possibility. Pune city comes in zone 3 & there are some design criteria’s while designing the structure of the buildings in this zone. A design pertaining to these criteria’s is called as earth quake resistant! It’s a way of strengthening the structural elements like foundation, columns & beams & slabs which are in a way base of any building. A good structure can help in avoiding many future maintenance rather fitness issues of a home & that’s why no harm in being a bit curious at the time of construction as k few questions to your developer about the same.
Once we took possession of a home then this fitness responsibility is also ours as however best a car may be yet it requires regular servicing is what we all know & takes our car for the same periodically but again when it comes to our home? Ask a simple question to our own self when it’s last time you have done servicing of your own home? Here again many will laugh at this silly question as what’s this new fancy idea of servicing the home! It’s much simpler & less money consuming than our car!

All we have to do is understand it properly & follow. Even the new Housing Law has got the provision of building audit which means periodical checking of the home & its services. Like our own body has a complex net work of blood veins, tissues & bones a home is also made up of similar things but with different terminology. The concealed plumbing pipes of water lines as well electric cables are in a way our home's veins &the plaster from inside to outside is like tissues under the skin & the main frame of building inclusive of columns & beams are like bones. Like our body's daily wear & tear many activities are going in & around the home making all these organs weak & wear. Like we need regular medical check ups they too need some check up & preventive measures though not as regularly as a human body needs but unfortunately we neglect it.

We install AC's on the outer walls of home & puncture the wall for getting the AC pipes & cable in. While making holes for these provisions we break the wall masonry & plaster which can create cracks all along the surface of the plaster which in turn gets loosen up & either may fail down or can carry water in side in rainy season causing seepage. We have attached terraces to our rooms & we rarely clean up the pipes carrying rain water down & then they get clogged up making rain water seep in our walls from the terrace. Our electric cables we never test periodically & there might be s break up due to short circuit which may lead to a fire after some years. Many of the homes now have a pipe gas provision maintenance of which is neglected & we read the news of a gas leak or blast! We change our sanitary wear or wall tiles in the toilet & in the process we end up breaking water proofing of the base of the toilet causing leakage in flat below or we fit solar on top terrace & in process damage the water proofing of the terrace again causing leakage in top floor flat in monsoon! We enclose our balconies after getting possession with all sorts of grills & aluminum sliding windows & for that do all type of breakage & never re-plaster it properly leave apart painting. Then the common scene is making awning for the terraces, it does look good but do we pay enough attention how we fit it? So many things keep happening around by which a home has to undergo wear & tear & gets damaged in process.

Like we pay attention to our own body only when we face some illness & rarely go for routine checkups when we are fit, it’s equally important to have routine check up for the various such systems of home as well the equipments engaged in serving the same. And the solution is along with periodical checking of such services making AMC i.e. annual maintenance contract of things like Lifts, Water pumps, Generator, Solar Water Heaters, Water Purifier plants & any such item which is working round the clock to make our life comfortable. Again not many societies have adopted such good practices & try to save on in their maintenance expenses & then we read about accidents from lift failures & fires due to short circuits! There are agencies out in the market that does provide these services & when it comes to maintenance of things like Lift or Generators, it’s always advisable to go through the official service provider even if they may be a bit costlier on face.

A fit home is equally important just like our own fitness; then only we can have the feeling of safety inside it as Maya Angelou has quoted. And for that the poor home can’t do any thing, it’s the person living in it has to go for it; that's our duty towards the four walls which we call home!

Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

Envo-Power Committee, Credai, Pune

Please do visit my blog to know about our philosophy at Sanjeevani !

http://visonoflife.blogspot.com/

Social Side of Sanjeevani !

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/sets/72157628805700569/

For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below

http://www.punecorporation.org/GRS/Complaint/LaunchComplaintCitizen.aspx

Think Green, Think Life

www.sanjeevanideve.com

Parking a Car!

If you have a little extra parking, I am on the side of getting rid of it in favor of having some more greenery...Michael King

Well considering the situation in city & our Indian sentiments for the car not many will be on the side of the international architect! As for us car is something of most valued possession. There is a good joke about the car that " If a man is opening door of a car for his wife then either the wife is new or the car!" Leave apart the joke part but it speaks about the sentimental possessive value we have for our car. Most of the men especially Indian men if asked what their dream of a good living is, will include a good looking wife, a nice home & then a car of his own, that's the dream! Earlier till 90's it was a status symbol to have a car of your own but come Maruti & even the common so called middle class person also was able to think of car of his own. In real terms its' entry of Maruti which changed the car scenario of our country. Till then to have a car was considered as only for milliner’s as they only has a space to park it was also a fact. And another most important but never considered aspect was then the distances weren't too much to travel & it’s more status base than need base to own a car.

After 90's the face of urban India started to change significantly fast pace & with entry of many multinational car makers in the market, having a car was no more just the status symbol for riches but it become a part of our daily necessity. The Towns became City's & City's changed to Metro's, making the distances to cover for our daily routines from few meters to many kilometers. There may be still many Punekars who had never crossed river Mutha for years as including schools to subji mandai to cinema halls to their work places all were in radius of 1/2 kilometers which was easily in reach on feet or at most with cycle! Also the homes were wadas as apartments were yet to become part of city's sky lines & bungalows were few. So there was no question of either need of car to move around or having a place to park it. Car was always an every body's favorite dream but yet people could do without having it!

As the cities started increasing in size so does the distances started getting increased & now if we consider the average citizen's required to travel in a city like Pune then it's nearly 20-30 km per day. This traveling includes going to office & then carrying children to school & going to shopping etc. Now the family size has been reduced to two plus two maximum so if on week end a family wants to go out going together by car has become the simplest & easiest way. This is outcome of failure of the city civic body to provide a proper system or infrastructure available for transportation within the city. I had been to cities like Singapore with my family & for 80% of the time I was comfortably using public transport over there which includes Metro as well Buses. Only for 20% of the time I have to use taxi. And all this without missing any of my timings to reach the destinations we were going. This I can’t even try in my own city & here is where our today's topic comes in lime light i.e. is parking! Here I recall my most favorite quote from the movie    Spider Man; “With great powers come along great responsibilities"! Similarly if car is power to an individual to reach at his destination as well to show of his status symbol then the parking of that car is the responsibility he has to carry along!

Here is where major crux comes in picture i.e. whose responsibility is to create a space for car parking? Recently there was a news which surprisingly went un-noticed by many; it was an order or directive issued by Hon. Home Minister of the State for taking actions about residential society's resident's car parking outside of their society on road! Well that means all the residents who owns a car have to park the car within their building premise which is logically correct but then why one has to buy a car is the question I will ask in first place! And what about number of Govt establishments whose visitors as well staff vehicles are parked all along out side of their premise! Even the PMPML i.e. our public transport system’s buses are parked all night & day along the roads blocking most part of the road, who is going to take action about them? Gone are the days where most buildings were with ground floor residence & no parking place was designed or required by the architects or even by building by-laws as with due respect to our planners short sightedness till early 90's car wasn't considered as part of the building & still 60% buildings don't have adequate car parks in the city as they were build in pre-car dependence era. The new by-laws demands to have car parking for even a single bed room flat i.e. 1 bhk & even 2 car parks for 3 bhk flat along with two wheeler parking  & the developers are building the projects accordingly! As a developer is in business & he will deliver what customer demands unfortunately with out thinking about the side effects of the demand. But have we thought at what cost the demand for parking is being fulfilled? With our need as well greed for status we are consuming most of the land around & below the complex for creating spaces for cars! Now we have multilevel car parking which in cases go two to three floors below the ground. In this process we damage the ground water flows & damage the biodiversity of many species like snakes to ants which were happily living below the earth’s surface for years! Many will laugh for such a silly thought but this is just one aspect of damage getting done because of creating more & more space for cars. Numbers of trees got cut to give away the space for drive ways to make the car reach in their parking lots at the same time lesser & lesser spaces are being made for the new trees in the same process is also a fact. We have laws for cars as well laws for trees but even a small kid can tell who wins the war at end!

Then there is a big debate going about a verdict of court that whether developer can sale the car parking? Issue isn't who can sale what, issue is every one needs place of his own to park a car is a fact & people are ready to pay ransom for their love towards their pride possession. In Mumbai the car parking costs goes over nearly Rs.10 lacs per parking at some places such is the demand for car park. Ask any person going for buying a home / flat & tell him that he wont be allotted a car park with the home & see his reaction & you will get your answer about selling of a car park! People can’t imagine a home without a car park of their own is a fact & it’s this factor which is more dangerous for the entire society than just having rights of selling the car park. Again it's not just car parks but two wheeler car parking is equally important as their numbers are also alarmingly high. Now a days in a average home there are two cars & three to two, two wheelers & cycles too for the school goers. How we are going to meet these demands is the real challenge & then we say homes are getting costlier! Because in the race of creating more car parking places we are increasing construction cost also by building more space for the parking. And at the end have we thought who is bearing cost of this construction? In the process our whole life style is being car or private vehicle oriented & the public/civic bodies conveniently dodge their responsibility by making stringent norms for car parking & thinks their job is done! It’s not the car parking but the need for the car requires to be taken care is what we are forgetting!

Only increasing parking norms for new developments is not going to solve the issue, it’s just passing the buck! If we are thinking just about the cars then this is bound to be the outcome. Think about entire planning of the city & why people needs to travel all across the city for smallest of the job? Decentralization is a word used too cheaply in our society. It has happened in private segment like most of the generation old outlets of shops have opened their branches in the suburbs but on many Govt fronts people have to run always to the head quarter of a Govt establishment is a fact. Even the zonal offices staff of public bodies or Govt offices has to do that leave apart the common man. Online documentation of many things like 7/12 extract of electric bills or even property tax like things if we make it possible in 100% then much of the traveling will be reduced. Banning parking in front of society roads isn't the solution but making services available to the people at their work places or resident is which in end will reduce the need of buying a car which at end will help in reducing need for the parking places. As when you allow a person to buy  a car by charging all the taxes then you only have to give him  a place to park the same car & not only at his residence but at all those places where he needs to go by the car may be out of helplessness! As no one like to park his car on road & neither likes to pay hefty charges for parking per hour as it’s a big pinch to the pocket in all ready tough survival with cost of fuel increasing each day!

Here not only the planning authority or the civic bodies but every citizen's role is equally important in curtailing the number of car parks. We have become so selfish that we have forgotten things like car pool or to plan our schedule a bit neatly & try to use public transport at least one day a week! But I can't blame common man totally as looking the way our rulers are dealing with the public transport issue, God save all the things especially as the quote says the greenery from parking is what I feel!

Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

Envo-Power Committee, Credai, Pune

Please do visit my blog to know about our philosophy at Sanjeevani !

http://visonoflife.blogspot.com/

Social Side of Sanjeevani !

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/sets/72157628805700569/

For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below

http://www.punecorporation.org/GRS/Complaint/LaunchComplaintCitizen.aspx

Think Green, Think Life

www.sanjeevanideve.com

Petrol, Metro & Homes!

If you think of cars you will end up making roads. If you think of human, you will end up making buildings. But if you think of nature then you will end up making a world livable for all... Lee Corbusier.

After reading the title many a will wonder what’s relevance in all above three things? It may seem like name of the art movies like "Surajka satava Ghoda" or "Albert Pintoko Ghussa Ku Aata Hai?" types but see the recent news about petrol hike & public transport especially the Metro. Well the first two are co related but what about home? What this has to do with real estate or home & their prices? There lies the crux of the question. For that we have to understand real estate or let’s call housing industry from different angle. In our city we have many people/ citizen are engaged in brain storming via various group activities & its does help to the Public bodies as well even departments like traffic police to do their job in better way. Many groups are in touch with each other via internet as well non Face book. On one such net group recently some one floated a question at me; what percentage of Traffic load do you think will be carried by Pune Metro when it is completed? As Metro is the latest in thing on our city related issue. My answer was ....Unless we don’t make a proper network supporting to Metro inclusive of PMT i.e. our Public road transport, rickshaws to reach there, this won’t solve the problem. As distances in Pune are short in compare to Mumbai/Delhi so more people will still tend to use private vehicle if the metro isn’t backed to end to end connectivity regarding destinations of travel. Another is execution time as till then what, so people will buy the vehicles & when I have a vehicle then I will naturally tend to use it for my daily basis for my convenience. That’s mentality of the city. Such types of hot discussions are going on all forums may it be social or political.

Then we have witnessed a sudden hike in Petrol prices & we suffered a Bhanrat Bandh also for the same. As well we experienced the rush to feel up the tank before the petrol price actually reached a new high & news about how petrol pump owners kept their pumps closed on the rate hike eve to earn maximum profit on the existing stock! The rate hike was nearly 10% strait which is now marginally reduced like nursing the wound. Imagine with any other commodity if such would have been the sudden rate hike? Though the after effects of this hike has yet to be felt truly. This is just beginning.
The by product of use of private vehicles is accidents! Now we are so used to this byproduct of traffic that we have stopped marooning over the same. Each day we open the news paper & see number of deaths all over the city in various incidents ,some who are sensitive enough they discuss amongst themselves & others just turn the page & go to sports news or share news. We are all ready on top of street deaths in State may be country & with over 20 million vehicles on roads & the number increasing each day & road carrying capacity being the same what can be other outcome? Each day nearly 70% of the people have to travel by their own private vehicles mostly two wheelers to different destinations risking their life to the accidents & we are not yet even considering the threat of pollution on the road from the emission of tons of gasses from the firing of these vehicles!
Each day when a house wife’s sees off her husband to his office or her son going to college by their two wheeler, till they come back she is worried of their safe return! Now many will say what’s new in all this & what it have to do with real estate of our home hunt? Well as the great architect quoted what we thinking for will decide where we will head in future. Till now our city like any prospering city is preferred by the people for living because it gives them a secure feeling & safe as well healthy environment to live. A city should not offer to the citizen just earnings but it should take care of the healthy & safe living also & this is something we are neglecting more & more with each passing day. When we say home prices are going high & out of budget of most then we must understand its not just one commodity on which home prices are depending. Any thing costly is in compare of the other commodities. Down the memory lane when I have just started my carrier in real estate at that time i.e. start of 90's the Prabhat road home prices were 1200/sft & its supposed to be the costliest bid then also! But Petrol was Rs7/litter. And now after nearly 20 years check up the graph, both have increased nearly ten times so why blame only home prices? This I am asking as a common man & not as a builder & as economic critics.
A home will look much cheaper which is a primary & basic need if we can keep other expenses in control & petrol is major factor for the sole reason that we have a poorest public transport system in compare to cities of our size. Result is maximum of the citizen’s time gets spend (I will say wasted) in communicating from one place to another & by spending heavily on filling their vehicles tanks & at the same time exposing themselves to risk of accident! This makes your financial budget go hey wire & leaving people less money to spend on your home buying. As to save on the distance in traveling to the destinations like work, market , children's school more & more people tend to have a home in the locality where all these things are available near by ,thus shifting the rate balance of a particular area. And then those who couldn’t afford home here have to move away in the zones where no infrastructure is available & many choose the option of illegal settlements. And we say homes are getting unaffordable in the city!
The Metro corridor has been proposed more FSI i.e. floor space index all along the track thus creating more homes which will help in lowering the prices of homes. One more factor is by introduction of Metro a longer stretch of city will be covered in smaller time at cheaper transportation cost. This again will make people to move out of the existing city limits & opting for places out of suburbs. As you can live outside of extreme end of the city where homes are available at much cheaper rates & come to Metro terminal by your vehicle, park it there & come in the city by Metro. Increased petrol values is in a way boon for the Metro as for a common man its impossible  to meet the financial ends with traveling by private vehicle getting so expensive. One thing is equally true that right now Metro or any other public transport system is not even finalized on paper, so it will take another five years minimum to come in operation is a fact. In these five years again the numbers of private vehicles is going up but while selecting the home one can look for the metro or such route & then choose the home accordingly.
An ideal city will provide equally developed infrastructure well spread in all parts of the city & which will help in citizen to curtail their travel distance as well time thus indirectly saving in costs of fuel. At the same time things like Metro will make them available the means of transportation to their destination at affordable price as well assuring a safe mean to travel. Imagine you have an option by virtue of which you can be at your destination in minimum time & without exposing yourself to risk of accident or pollution & that too in very much cost effective way! Feels like living in dream! But that’s what we are missing here as no one is giving attention to this angle of all these issues collectively which on face looks irrelevant! Here developers too should get united & if some major development is going on in a particular suburb then they can think of starting a separate bus route by paying for the same to the local public transport body. Because like " Pahale anda ya pahale murgi?" as there are no passengers there is no bus route & as there is no bus route there are no passengers, is the situation in most of the city suburbs.
Agreed like Petrol price hike the Metro isn’t going to happen in one day but if we plan & start the supporting infrastructure right now, then only we can expect proper contribution of Metro in making homes affordable in this city. Or else instead of solving traffic problem we will have one more problem how to make Metro profitable?
Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

Envo-Power Committee, Credai, Pune

Please do visit my blog to know about our philosophy at Sanjeevani !

http://visonoflife.blogspot.com/

Social Side of Sanjeevani !

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/sets/72157628805700569/

For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below

http://www.punecorporation.org/GRS/Complaint/LaunchComplaintCitizen.aspx

Think Green, Think Life

www.sanjeevanideve.com