HYDERABAD: The Children’s Park in Sainikpuri was filled with memories on Sunday as residents gathered to mourn the loss of green cover in their locality. The gathering aimed to highlight the recent unauthorised chopping down of the branches of the old peepal trees in the park on Second Avenue and the unscientific destruction of greenery at the crossing of First Avenue and First Crescent Road to allow archery practice.
Taking a leaf from the Chipko movement, residents hugged the old peepal trees and vowed to protect them. The gathering also threw open a treasure trove of lived experiences as the participants jostled to share tales of their time in Sainikpuri and the park.
Lalita Ramdas, who is in her eighties now, is the daughter of late Admiral Ramdas Katari, the first Indian Chief of Naval Staff of Independent India. According to Ramdas, her father came to Sainikpuri around 1974. “My father has been amongst the small group of people who planted all these big trees that you see around. He used to go every morning and every evening, making sure that they were watered and that nobody uprooted them,” she says.
She reminisces how Admiral Katari’s walking stick was an effective reinforcement. While some parents reminisced about how their motive to shift to Sainikpuri was so that their children could grow up amidst the greenery, the children also had something to say. “When I came to know that trees were being cut, I was mad because this is my favourite park,” says 11-year-old Noah Hofmann.
As per Manognya Reddy, a resident, the efforts of residents prompted responses from the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC). The state Forests department has imposed fines on the Armed Forces Officers Co-operative Housing Society (AFOCHS), she added.
Among the demands of the group are compensatory replanting of trees for those illegally chopped, no parking area to be leased out for private use, relocation of Sainikpuri GHMC garbage unit away from the residential area, restoration of footpaths for the safety of walkers and removal of encroachments on public roads. Ramdas said, “We are very poor in maintaining our histories. History is not the story of kings and queens. History is our stories put together so that each of us begins to respect our heritage”.