BENGALURU: With the city bereft of its green cover, the Bangalore Metro Rail authorities are planning to have vertical gardens on its piers in three reaches of the Metro line. On June 20, they invited firms for developing and maintaining these gardens. However, the vertical garden that was set up experimentally on Metro pillars on MG Road last March has completely dried up and they have been dismantled now. With BMRCL pushing for this project, green experts, including the High Court-appointed Tree Committee, as well as forest officials call this project a big blunder, expensive and totally unsuited for the city.
They say that these gardens are difficult to maintain and requires regular watering, and they suggest growing hardy creepers and climbers instead in the medians or below the pillars which would cover the piers in no time. The green man of Bengaluru, Sethuram Neginhal, former IFS officer says, “Prof Patrick Planc, inventor of vertical gardens was in town recently and spoke about how this concept had been adapted in the US, Hong Kong, China, and so on but for a place that is cold and has unsuitable soil. Further, these gardens need regular watering and this is a water-starved city.”
High Court-appointed Tree Committee member Vijay Nishant says, “All the members had advised against vertical gardens as they are unsuitable for a hot country with varying temperatures usually towards the higher side. They should concentrate on saving tree cover along the new Metro alignments.”
Suggesting an alternative method, Neginhal says, “The alternative is to go in for plantation of creepers and climbers that can be planted below the Metro pillars. Many hardy species not requiring much water, as they retain moisture, can be made to grow around the pillars. In vertical gardens, there is 90 per cent evaporation. There are several beautiful climbing species available with the horticulture department, some 7-8 varieties are eminently suitable for growing around Metro pillars.”A senior forest official opined that most vertical gardens done in Bengaluru seemed like a gimmick.