Ex. garbage dump...

Once, this place used to produce 'Tanasi' - A cloth and tanasi used to get exported to Gulf from this place. Many writers referred this place by various names such as - Kukin Tana, Tana Mayambu and Shri Sthanak (derived from A Ganesha Temple). It is also known as 'City of Lakes'. This is a city of 'Thane' – its current name. In this city exists a small garden that I visited recently. The Dattaji Salvi Nature Park (named after former Shivsena leader) is located in Bara Bungla area of Kopri, Thane.

It is a joint venture of Thane Municipal Corporation and The Forest Department. I got a chance to visit this park through 'The Tree Appreciation walk'. These walks are arranged by a group of common people who are dedicated to spread awareness about trees in general public - an uncommon, commendable and noble job.

Clicked from entrance

As soon as I entered the garden there was feeling of calmness and peace that ran through my mind. I am sure that the silence and greenery of this place will refresh your mind too. This garden was created on a dumping yard. It was inaugurated in 2011 and and ever since then it is open for public. There are more than 300 plant species that are planted in this garden including ground covers, herbs, shrubs and trees. A mixture of natives and non-native plants can be seen here. Walls of this garden are made up of local rock of Konkan area - The Laterite. This adds to the beauty of the garden and calmness that you may feel after entering the garden. There are few more gardens in Mumbai city that were created on garbage dumps. Maharashtra Nature Park in Dharavi and BPT/Sagar Upavan in Colaba are two of them. 

Mumbai and Thane - two mega cities of our country do have a 'mega' problem of huge  garbage created every day (on an average 7025 metric tone per day in the city of Mumbai!!!) Do visit this link - http://www.mcgm.gov.in/irj/go/km/docs/documents/MCGM%20Department%20List/City%20Engineer/Deputy%20City%20Engineer%20(Planning%20and%20Design)/City%20Development%20Plan/Solid%20Waste%20Management.pdf

These cities have lack of open spaces, green spaces, clean & pure air but have ample amount garbage... It is really unfortunate that we are not able to minimize our waste. As a matter of fact it is increasing! There is no other animal that exists on earth have created such a mess! Generally, a naturally existing site is selected for a dump yard. When it reaches to its maximum carrying capacity it is converted into a garden. So, a natural patch (either of forest/grassland/mangrove etc.) is selected, dumped with garbage and then again converted in a man-made greenery/garden. There is no doubt that it is better to have green patch on such lands but, the main problem of garbage generation still continues stay there. As per my knowledge, the full proof solution for getting rid of garbage is yet to arrive. Hence, it is better to keep control on waste that we generate by knowingly/unknowingly using excess natural resources. It is not too hard to acquire this habit of minimizing waste. All we have to do is to relate each resource that is utilized to our mother earth; make a note of small changes that we can make in our life style (at personal level) that will benefit nature and act accordingly. As ultimately everything that we use has been sourced from nature.

Pathway