Development monstrosity in this Town but there is at least the Mookaneri lake

I got to observe examples of unsustainable development in the South Indian town, Salem, it was pretty disappointing, for the Town is following the mistakes that had been done in Indian Metros and big Cities. However, before that good stuff about Salem Town, that was impressive was signs reminding people to keep place clean and not use single plastic in the Salem Station Junction, that’s awesome. They even have buses stationed conveniently outside the station to take passengers to the City’s main bus stand, that was good as well. Now coming to the disappointments.

Here, it’s interesting to see how our Cities have got rotten, with traffic congestion, no space to walk and there is dullness in the place because there is congested buildings and structures everywhere with no trees, holding a dull congested and depressing look. I did not expect Salem to try to be like CIties, it being a Town. There is walkability issue there with development works of building flyover happening, there is absolutely no thought provided on making things convenient for pedestrians , and even a Town does not look cycle friendly. This absolutely made me sad, I mean modernity concept and development concept is not this, encouraging private vehicles and traffic and air pollution!!!

In some roads I imagined Bangalore, those metro pillars and there is no way we can cross roads safely, albeit Salem may not be as not bad as Bangalore roads to cross, but it’s bad nevertheless thanks to the space taken up in the middle completely for flyovers, leaving less place in the side roads, now just vehicles go there confidently and pedestrians beware and walk.

It’s a monster structure!!! , a City creature knows all this pain and now seeing Towns well into this, only made me re-experience this pain.

I saw Ola and RedTaxi getting popular as well in Salem, no opinions here, but still, it means they are aping the Cities.

I feel atleast that in Cities we are aware of things like - the need to exercise, there are parks here and there, but in Towns like Salem, I wonder if there are parks where people can recreate healthily for their physical and mental fitness. Some more posher looking people than the locals seem to go for walks, but where in these roads?, where is no greenery and enjoyable walking space(this holds true to the new bus stand area atleast)

I was also struck by those tall divider stone bars dividing road, done probably to discourage pedestrians to cross roads there, it’s common in Bangalore City, did not expect this in a Town, those small stone dividers so nice and simple. There were also shops like Big Bazaar, cafes and eateries and stuff like that. Looks like these developments have come to 3 tier towns as well.

However, since I was in Salem, I did pay a visit to Mookaneri lake also called Kanankuruchi Lake, infact that was the only exciting thing I was looking forward to in Salem, as this lake was a spoilt dirty lake, that was rejuvinated and cleaned by Salem’s Citizens Forum , that is a Citizen’s Group in Salem formed by efforts of Green Activist and hero Piyush Manush presumely along with others. I heard him mention they planted saplings in the middle that become islands in the lake attracting birds. And for real I saw them.

I was relieved that atleast even though Mookaneri lake was far in a more remoter region in Salem, there was a respected space for people to recreate!! When I approached this area by bus, atleast there was wind blowing which was refreshing, though I had struggled to find the lake as I got off in Kanankuruchi main bus stop that was far from the lake.

The lake was spread in a pretty vast area and there was a greenery filled walking track to go inside around the surroundings of the lake. People of Salem should be grateful that Salem Citizens Forum preserved a lake where they can spend some time getting much needed blessings of Nature here. I can imagine this lake was rejuvenated by the efforts of people in a community spirit doing very simple but effective things like removing silt and planting those green islands, nothing complicated, it was all combined labour.

One thing that kept beckoning me as I walked to find the lake was the mountains, Yercaud mountains that I went onto the next day, though I could not do what I wanted to do there, it was such a relief to relax at Yercaud mountain, more on that next write up.

While leaving I thought it was a twilight evening, reason being there was a beautiful view of the moon in the sky -

My conclusion is, people are still thinking that a good life means these kind of developments - flyovers, roads, cars and closed places to hang out, do shopping etc.

However, we need open spaces, walking areas, greenery and recreational open space hubs that encourage a healthy, clean, mindful and active lifestyle.

It’s as it is everywhere, people are not able to be involved in the development of their City/Town, the Government does it in this fashion without people involvement and people accept it.

However, the next day while passing Yercaud main road in Salem when going to Yercaud, I found that there was vast greenery spread around the vast Salem Collector Bunlow, it seemed unfair that only that part was all greenery when rest of Salem is not.