: Navi Mumbai Residential Colony Stops Encroachment, Turns Barren Land Into Green Wonder #IndiaNEWS #Environment In a quiet corner of Belapur, Navi Mumbai, tucked between the hills on one side and the

Navi Mumbai Residential Colony Stops Encroachment, Turns Barren Land Into Green Wonder #IndiaNEWS #Environment
In a quiet corner of Belapur, Navi Mumbai, tucked between the hills on one side and the sprawling city on the other, is a small residential colony. This isn’t your regular colony in a busy suburb, however. Here grow fruits, vegetables and flowers. Butterflies and bees come and go aplenty. “While the world is struggling to buy essentials during these trying COVID times, we have a cherry blossom harvest here,??? says Capt. Pawnday, one of the senior-most and pioneer volunteers of the AGRO Society.
In the late 1990s, a group of citizens who bought homes and settled down in Sector 9 of Belapur realised that the barren land adjoining their complex was being encroached upon. They realised the only way to save that land was to green it up. With CIDCO handing over the land under a high-tension wire, it was impossible to use it for anything else. Measuring nearly one hectare, the decision to green the land also gave way to the founding of the AGRO Society, a residents’ association committed to environmental friendliness and conservation of the sensitive ecosystem in that area.

“Our complex sits right in the middle of a rich and sensitive ecosystem layers of green, a valley, the hills. It was natural for us to then fill our housing colonies with lanes that are lined with flowering shrubs, courtyard gardens, kitchen gardens and even terrace gardens,??? says Suresh Bhagwat, another senior volunteer who has been involved in AGRO Society’s activities from inception.
The primary aim of the AGRO Society is to keep the open land free from encroachments and develop it as a green area. Under this broad umbrella of greening, the AGRO society has explored many concepts. They first terraced the land to prevent soil erosion due to the heavy rains Belapur gets in the monsoons. They followed it up with sinking a natural open well and then followed it up with creating a pump system, laying a network of pipes for irrigation. After this, they planted gardens and other arrangements resulting in a vast expanse of a vegetable farm, a relaxing Nana-Nani Park for senior citizens, and a lush playground for younger residents. When these were regularised, they also created a butterfly and botanical garden in 2014.
The vegetable garden aims to grow crops throughout the year and sell its fresh organic produce to the residents as well as neighbouring areas. Since its inception, AGRO Society’s volunteers have experimented with growing crops; most of it has been through trial and error. The success has been in experimenting and the lessons they learnt from it. Today, there is a large variety of crops including exclusive articles such as herbs, medicinal plants and fruits besides seasonal vegetables.

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