The announcement by Professor Riyaz Punjabi, Vice Chancellor of the Kashmir University, is being challenged based on University’s role in destroying the “Chinar Orchard”
VC’s heritage site slogan hollow
Baba Umar (Rising Kashmir)
Srinagar: A day after Vice Chancellor of the University of Kashmir (KU), Professor Riyaz Punjabi declared KU’s Naseem Bagh as a heritage site, environmentalists termed it as a “hollow slogan.”
“To declare something as a heritage site, one needs to conserve it, but they (University administration) are constructing a huge three-storey guest house in the middle of Naseem Bagh, how come these things gel together,” said an environmentalist on the condition of anonymity. “You cannot declare something as a heritage site at the cost of legendary Chinars and the landscape.”
“Naseem Bagh, the world’s biggest Chinar orchard, at one time had around 1200 chinars; however, due to lackadaisical attitude of the authorities, there are only 300 of them left as on date,” the environmentalist added.
According to the KU insiders the Chinars were exposed to danger when the construction work in the Naseem Bagh was started by Varsity authorities in April 2007. Now with the work on the guest house going on, environmentalists fear that with the passage of time; the remaining Chinars may become a history.When probed whether the university will stop the construction, the varsity’s VC maintained that it is heritage site, however, KU cannot call off the work on the site.
“Let us think positively, I believe we can have a construction in the Naseem Bagh and simultaneously it can be a heritage site,” Professor Riyaz Punjbai told Rising Kashmir. “But I assure all that it will be a last and final construction in the Naseem Bagh campus .”
Asked if KU is planning to carry out any Chinar plantation drive in the campus to compensate for the earlier losses, he said saplings of Chinar have been sown in the other areas of the varsity but not in the Naseem Bagh.
In 2007 the Chinar Development Authority (CDA), a government body assigned with protection of Chinar trees, had rejected KU’s plans for construction of guesthouse in the historical Naseem Bagh.In its letter to Deputy Commissioner (DC) Srinagar, it had sought immediate withdrawal of construction work from the Naseem Bagh citing numerous reasons. It had noted that the construction of kitchen sideways the guesthouse would turn into a reproduction ground for insects and moss that would eventually lead to demise of majestic Chinars of Naseem Bagh.
“Soakage pits will obstruct sewerage system resulting in the water logging which in turn will result in the decomposition of stems and roots of the Chinars, leading to their permanent death,” it had noted.However, Professor Punjabi maintained that the guest house would have a special sewerage system and nothing would be dumped beneath the Naseem Bagh soil.
“The guest house would include a fine sewerage system and everything would be pumped out of the campus,” he said.