The Green Killer

The sight of so much greenery might satisfy an environment loving citizen. But this greenery is taking its toll on the environment itself. For the last few years, residents in Bopodi and neighbouring are complaining of health problems, which are caused by the existence of hyacinth in Mula river. But the issue has now become a plaything between two municipal corporations and College of Military Engineering also.

Officials from Pune Municipal Corporations claim they have routed out the hyacinth problem from Mutha river in PMC limits. But parts of Mula river flowing through PMC area is infected with huge spread of hyacinths. According to these officials, Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation is pushing these hyacinths in PMC area.

"We have proof that PCMC is pushing hyacinths in Mula river, which originally comes from Pavana river. They show readiness for co-operation when approached, but suddenly they resort to same old tactic of releasing water with hyacinths without informing," said Dr. Pramod Daigude, head of the PMC health department.

Such irritated PMC is on this matter, that it has started to put girders in the riverbed so that this weed should not enter its area. It has issued expression of interest notices for inviting tenders so that the task can be given to private agencies. The process is expected to be completed within one month.

This practise was till now followed only by College of Military Engineering, which is situated on Mula river.
PCMC on its part has sent a letter to PMC denying any responsibility on the matter. Officials from PCMC, apparently taking pride in being the richest municipal corporation in Asia, shown readiness to pay the money for removal of weed. But they themselves have not done anything in the matter. When contacted, PMC officials were either unavailable or unwilling to comment.
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More Problems to follow
Even when its cup of woe filled to the top, PMC is facing one more uphill task now. According to A. V. Patole, deputy head of the department and in-charge of weed removal programme, said, "Till now we used to remove weed from riverbed successfully. But now a new type of weed is coming up which is called, Pistia or Nile Cabbage. It has come basically from US and it is a major headache there. It is spread over thousands of Kms. on rivers and lakes. Only aerial spraying of pesticides is done in US but we can’t do it for environmental reasons."

Another matter of concern for PMC is a proposed construction of gas pipeline near Harris Bridge. Maharashtra Gas Ltd. has built a bund under the bridge for this pipeline. It is also causing a stoppage to the flowing hyacinths. Patole said, "Although the company has promised that it will remove the concrete bund once their construction is completed, our past experience does not allow us to believe them. So our problems are getting only complicated."
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(Published in Pune Mirror on 8 April)