Ecological challenges in Vile Parle East

Vile Parle East was a lovely small village on the coast of Mumbai. Unlike other villages, it was not a fishing village. Its culture was mainly centred around the Parleshwar temple and trading in grocery items by the few Brahmin families settled around the temple. Merchants came much later.

 It still retains the character of a small village- basically it covers a small area with a distinct culture and layout. But we are now on the threshold of major changes, which will bring about large ecological challenges. These are broadly:

AIR QUALITY

1.       Pollution is covered below

2.       Breeze

Most Parlekars in old buildings were able to enjoy the cool evening breeze blowing from the sea. Now except the heavy monsoon winds, breeze is a rare experience. In some areas like open ground of Parle Tilak vidyalay or atop tall buildings, still breeze can be felt.

3.       Temperature

We still don’t experience the ‘heat- islanding’ to that extent. But market areas seem to be warmer than residential areas

4.       Light and brightness

The merchants in Parle have been sensible not to install bright hoardings. So, excessive night-time brightness which is disturbing to humans is still not such a problem.  During daytime the glare in market-place is really annoying.

WATER QUALITY

1.       Piped water supply- Vile Parle East was found to have the cleanest water in a survey done about 2-3 years ago.

2.       Well water systems

Ground water pollution by sewage is an ever- increasing problem.

3.       Lakes and ponds

There are no lakes or ponds

FLORA AND FAUNA

1.       Tree cover- Ever decreasing, the diversity is reduced and many exotic inappropriate trees are being found here. Trees are being chopped for easy visibility of hoardings- most notably the new gold shop opposite Babasaheb Gawde Hospital has chopped the tree on the corner to make its board visible. There is not a single green belt, urban forest in Parle East. The shrub trees are particularly missing- castor, calotropis, ber, etc

2.       Birds-

We still have considerable number of birds- but they are reducing.

3.       Mammals

The only mammals worth quoting are the common squirrel and bats.

4.       Snakes, lizards and other reptiles

My impression is that there could be snakes- hidden away in mounds of debris, nearer slightly cleaner gutters or un- used  spaces. Plenty of lizards, a few calotes are present.

5.       Insects, worms and other small fauna

There are lots of mosquitoes- but beehives are distinctly less in number. Frogs have reduced.

6.       Vermin

The population of dogs, cats, pigeons, rats and mosquitoes and flies is considerable.

POLLUTION – Most of these variable will need data before my putting it here, so I will start from No 4. As a doctor, and from discussion with my colleagues- pollution related respiratory, skin complaints are on the rise. Also people do complain of disturbance and headaches due to noise pollution.

1.       Chemicals in air

2.       Solid particles in air

3.       Noise

4.       Sewage- It appears all buildings discharge untreated sewage into the storm water drains from where it flows into the sea.

5.       Garbage- Garbage- mostly unsegregated is collected by municipality and dumped at Deonar or Mulund.

6.       Culture- specific pollutants- These include playing of loudspeakers, feeding cows and pigeons  at roadside, leaving left- over food on parapet walls, etc

AMBIENCE AND AESTHETICS

1.       Old and traditional houses- not all old houses provide visual pleasure- Some are covered in tarpaulin and look like hovels

2.       New buildings trends

Glass fronted buildings, multi- storeyed car parks and concretised set- backs. These trends are totally inappropriate for Vile PARLE. For one Mostly AC Cooling is not needed, glass causes glare. I wish buildings should use percolator-type paver blocks instead of concretising their compounds.

3.       New layout trends

Concrete roads and total disregard for pedestrians is a negative trend. But some commercial areas like ICICI bank building on Hanuman road have provided good set- backs, which is a positive trend

Special sights or spaces

The only structure that can be identified as truly 'Parlekar' is the Parleshwar temple. Other than that we have no claim to any special buildings, sculptures or public spaces. We need to develop something that encompasses the soul, culture, pride and 'true' feeling of what it is to be a Parlekar.

The increased population is not actually an ecological challenge. Vile Parle has enough ground water resources. If organized intelligently the waste management also can be trouble- free. In fact due to high population density we should be able to implement many public transport solutions even locally.  There are very few slum pockets in Vile Parle East and they are undergoing re-development. The only challenge related to population is the tendency to desire several large cars and drive them around for small tasks like vegetable shopping.  This creates all kinds of pollution, obstruction of roads due to parking and traffic congestion.