The Horticulture Department is ensuring some much-needed attention is given to the Arboretum tree garden in Udhagamandalam, with a stream, which turns into a sewer during the monsoon due to the dumping of waste along its course, being covered with concrete slabs.
Officials from the department said that the stream course originated from Fern Hill and emptied into the marshland adjoining the tree garden. While it was a clean source of water for most of the year, the stream became extremely polluted during the monsoon, with garbage from further up its course being washed into the tree garden. As a result, the garden used to be filled with the stench of food and plastic waste during different times of the year.
As a first step towards ensuring that the garden was maintained, the stream course passing through the garden was being covered with concrete slabs, while efforts were also being undertaken by the Udhagamandalam Municipality to prevent the dumping of waste into the stream.
However, activists said that not only the park, but the marsh on which it stood faced threat from illegal dumping of waste and urged the municipality and the district administration to ensure that the marshland itself was protected.
G. Janardhanan, president of the Ooty Public Awareness Association, said that while maintenance of the tree garden was welcome, waste being washed into the park was a sign of the other threats facing the marsh, stating that there needed to be a holistic approach towards ensuring the protection of the marshland surrounding it. “Construction waste is routinely dumped into it illegally, while there are a number of spots around the marsh where people dump garbage. As this is the only marsh left relatively intact in Udhagamandalam, it needs protection,” said Mr. Janardhanan.