One storm lay most of Vizag’s greenery to waste; the skyline now resembles the end of a jagged brush. After the storm, the government and local bodies strove to rebuild the greenery that was once abundant in Vizag. One of these was the initiative by the wives of Naval officers, spear headed by Seema Verma, wife of Chief of Staff ENC Vice-Admiral Bimal Kumar Verma, who thought to hold an auction of plants. At the same meeting, some of these ladies were given the option to ‘adopt’ areas around their residences where they would plant trees, etc. The naval base lost around 50,000 trees; not to mention all the well manicured lawns and gardens with their flowering plants, shrubs and hedges.
“I am trying to rebuild the lawn to what it was before during the storm,” says Richa Awasthi, a homemaker. “Our hedge flew off, and the freshly dug flower beds were also destroyed. I’ve started by planting a hedge, golden ground, around the lawn. My maid has also taken initiative and planted some flowers in the garden. In fact, a guava tree has started coming up on its own!” she exclaims.
It was proposed that they pick up those plants and trees that would not only beautify the landscape, but also be easy to maintain and ones that are safe for the environment and would be able to withstand further storms. They planted trees that don’t require much water, are indigenous to the area and are unlikely to get eaten by animals.
ADVERTISEMENT
Liria Mendonca, a teacher, had a veritable farm surrounding her house – from fruit trees to herbs. “We never bought anything from the market save onions and potatoes before the storm,” she remembers. After Hudhud, they lost a lot of their plants, and even some of the ones they managed to save, didn’t last long as they were damaged beyond repair. “It will be another year before I get back my pre-Hudhud garden, especially since summer is now fast approaching,” she says. She has a staggering variety of fauna at her place, like orchids, wild orchids, orange tree, lemon trees, various herbs, cacti, banana trees and kumquats .
She advises people to plant trees like mast tree, Karank, tree fern, bottle brushes, Indian tulips and kachnar. Incidentally, karanja trees suffered the least damage during Hudhud. We “We have got an opportunity to redo things in a safer way. For example, while banyan and peepul trees are great, having them too close to our houses and roads would mean that much more damage in case of another storm. Certain trees have far reaching roots that often strange underground cables or break water pipes, as was seen during Hudhud,” she informs.
Some people, who don’t find time to garden often build wall gardens using cut-up plastic bottles. These can be hung from doorways or even nailed to the wall and are generally used to grow kitchen herbs. Also, you need not use up all your water and instead use the run-off from RO systems.
ADVERTISEMENT