Campaign to Save the Lung Spaces of Mysore

Dargah in Park

 Temple Park

Debris Dumping in People Park

Mysore is no more a garden city. Instead, it is becoming a concrete jungle. On paper, we have more than 600 parks in the city. But only 120 of them have been developed and can be recognized as parks. Since the land occupied by the parks is extremely valuable real estate, there is tremendous pressure to encroach. The best example of such encroaching is People's Park where one can find a PU college, a tennis club, a temple (See photo) and a dargah (See photo). The authorities seem blind to the progressive encroachment of the park. The park is also being used by the authorities to dump debris (See photo). The government's plan for building a library in People's Park has not fructified only because there is a case pending before the High Court.

The Supreme Court has repeatedly given judgements to prevent the encroachment of parks. The law allows only a structure of less than 30 square meters (323 sq.ft.) in a park and that too for watchmen's quarters. Despite these legal restrictions, our parks are being systematically decimated. The citizens are being forced to protest repeatedly and vigorously to prevent the destruction of parks in the city and to preserve our lung spaces.

Two years ago, on 24-6-2012, Mysore Grahakara Parishat, Mysore Youth Forum, Parisara Samrakshana Samithi and other NGOs held a "teach-in" at People's Park to reflect on how our parks are disappearing, how losing lung space is harmful, and what people can do about it. To continue exerting pressure on the local government, the state government and the elected representatives to stop all encroachments of the park, MGP is again holding a silent protest at People's Park between 10 AM and 12 AM on Saturday, 28-6-14. Some schools will be bringing their students as a practical class in the park to teach them on the need to save parks and on the citizens' responsibility to get involved to solve civic problems in a democracy. Those interested to get more information on saving the park are requested to contact MGP at 2515150 or 9845142770 or 8861096205

Bhamy V. Shenoy and Prof R. Chandra Prakash