LET A 1000 TREES BLOOM

I use to use a metaphor to describe my home state Kerala-it is like a "banana fry"! Just take a good look at the geography of it and you will realise that. A very small geo unit_limited land space with high population density. And demand too.

My point is about the new "green villas". It is every Malayalees dream to own a piece of land and built a home. But land is a premium here and the cost of whatever available is jacked up by the "broker mafia" (yeah, it is the new mafia). Severe fragmentation of landholdings has broken Kerala. It has also poked holes in that vast "Green Umbrella" that once Kerala was famous for.

I am not against building villas or residential flats. I am against indiscriminate clearing of trees in the name of construction. I have to advice or rather remind my fellas that to beat the tropical sun from beating us down and flat, we need to repair the green umbrella.

Let the policy makers make it mandatory planting of trees in the housing as well as other construction projects, including roads. After all LET A 1000 TREES BLOOM be our official policy.