Choking to Death

NOVEMBER 2004 - The Ring Road is the new showpiece and since I am hopeless at reading maps leave alone implementing them, I am unable to see the great peace and fluidity this will bring into our lives. Apparently there are enough wise men here, who think it’s the best thing that’s happened here since mankind invented the comb.

The Ring Road, which I suppose is called because it is like a ring, will marry the chaos of the 125,000 vehicles that arrive daily at the city gates of Lahore into one smooth, chocolate-like flow of organized movement that will feed various areas of the exploding Punjab metropolis. Instead of battling your way through a battle zone of vehicles of every hue, colour and shape driven by men in advanced stages of mental breakdown and bathed in the warm glow of huge clouds of dust, cow dung and diesel fumes that are now Lahore’s trademark sign off, you will scurry off the smooth Motorway and be in time for toast and tea with your dearly loved ones, in a trice so to speak. If that is indeed progress, I am all for it having already embraced the city’s many underpasses though for the life of me I am unable to tell which ones fall on the left side of the road and which ones on the right. Therefore, mad, last minute scrambling to get into the proper lane is not a sight that’s too rare these days. Lahoris may be smart people with the proverbial last word, but underpasses have them flummoxed.

When the underpasses were being built at a passionate speed, there were repeated reports that to ensure their arrival, large scale cutting of ancient, shade-giving trees was necessary. Since there is no love lost between the people and trees, the authorities didn’t have to look far for tree cutters with a dedicated mission in life. Thus, hundreds of trees were unceremoniously brought down, not just in Lahore but wherever the wheels of progress were brightening the lives of the Pakistanis. The concept of underpasses is flawed given the fact that the bewildering variety of vehicles travelling at their own speeds and in their highly individualistic styles makes traffic engineering an exotic science that few can comprehend leave alone implement. Instead of regulating traffic, the wide, sweeping underpasses, much like their counterparts, the boulevards, simply raise the chaos of our traffic a notch higher and then higher. Instead of bedlam at 40 mph on a 30 foot wide road, you simply have it transferred to bedlam at 60 mph on a 55 foot wide road. Instead of losing a headlight or two when you crash into another body, you lose bonnets, fenders, bumpers, radiators and often windscreens. The chaos raised to the nth degree because someone thinks wider roads means better traffic flow. However, this line of thinking finds little favour in the minds of policy planners who religiously advocate underpasses and the like without which they wail, life will come to a complete standstill. So, whether we like it or not, this viral infection that creates sweeping boulevards and ingenious underpasses is now part of life here.

However, what has been hard to adjust to is the rather mindless and almost ritualistic cutting down of trees. The law books written by the environment gurus states that for every tree cut down in the larger interest of the common folk, at least two more trees are to be planted, is a law that has died even before the ink on the document had dried. No one is remotely interested in this formula and as always, trying to pin down responsibility is like negotiating a large mountain of jelly on the way up. In the blessed city of Data Gunj Baksh who sleeps uneasily with pressure horns galore, a million people flailing about in emotionally charged physically aggressive movements and vile commerce thriving on every footpath in sight, the very notion of coordination is absent between the various bodies that are supposed to regulate these things. According to a news report this week, Lahore has lost almost 6,000 trees this year and there is still a month to go. Most of the trees were 50-60 years old and most were shady trees. They not only gave a clam and serene look to the areas where they flourished but provided welcome shade and added to the environmental quality which is what all law-abiding trees do without fear or favour. However, they came down because roads had to be widened.

What is shocking and unforgivable is that the PHA, the Parks & Horticulture Authority, the Environment Department and the City District Government are genetically incapable of meeting to ensure that things are doing right the first time around and that the various laws and regulations which are all in place, are adhered to. The fact is that neither body is concerned which is why we go on reading report after report which says that ‘the concerned body’ was not available or did not do its homework or was not interested in doing its job. Why three departments which have not much to do most days – the environmental sleuths are fast asleep and have been in a coma for most of their existence and the CDG seems fixated on vulgar plays, obscene dances and lewd dialogues in city theatres, is not even a mystery to any of us. They say that during the times of the infidel British, the Governor of the province with help from qualified botanists selected and planted the trees that adorn The Mall and make it one of the most beautiful roads in the world. Not only did they plant them, they ensured that these were nurtured and grew to become the great trees that they are today. It seems that instead of carefully choosing the right kind of saplings to plant, bureaucrats are making their own botanical assessments and planting bushes to replace trees. The EPD which has all the legal cover that is needed is simply not in any mood to take on violators, instead preferring to look the other way or remain in the comatose state that it enjoys. Although its supposed to grant NOCs to any building activity only after it is certain that all laws and regulations have been observed and the EIA – Environment Impact Assessment has been evaluated, no such thing happens in real life. Most times, projects are initiated and even completed without so much as a token approval from the EPD. In the case of the underpasses, apparently the same route was taken. If the EPD is a toothless mongrel – calling it a tiger would be a terrible mistake, why not close it down and declare open season on the environment or whatever is left of it? At least we can all dance at the funeral pyre without any regrets, but this impotency that is rampant in these regulatory authorities needs swift surgery.

Above all this and I suppose below all this like a layer, runs our personal attitude to the space we all occupy and abuse without break daily. All of us are guilty of adding to the garbage dump that Lahore has turned into in just a few years. It is still a beautiful city and first time visitors are mesmerized by it, but those of us who have known the city, its chilly winters, the woolen scarves, the winter rains, the Chester coats, the sharp piercing cold wind that swept down, are unable to come to terms with this dust-laden death cloud that keeps Lahoris gasping for breath and choking and coughing throughout the year. While respiratory diseases may make doctors rich and keep the profit margins soaring for the medicine men, it is an unhealthy city where clean air is now just as ethereal as a mirage in a desert. It is no use blaming the governments for what we are subjecting ourselves to daily, because in this part of the world, governments are driven by other considerations. Unless each one of us gets up and makes a mighty noise, things will simply get worse. The great trees will fall, in silence and asphalt highways will rule our lives. Not quite the legacy one would wish on those yet to arrive, is it?