Street forests can prevent encroachers from usurping Karachi’s urban spaces

“We have every right to occupy open public spaces near our mosque,” was the refrain from a well attired moulvi sahib heading the mosque committee. The year was 2022 and, armed with a 1929 map we were trying to convince the committee to vacate the open space around a small Colonial Period Police Chowki.

This dilapidated structure was situated on the same Paria Street on which Wazir Mansion, the house of Pakistan’s founder is located. It also faces the Kharadar Chowk, a historic site that is mentioned in the earliest chronicles of British Karachi. Being part of the Old Town Heritage Trail that I had designed, I thought restoring the Colonial structure would provide a good opportunity to improve the environment in the area.

Kharadar crossing was a sad reflection of the vision that we might conjure up in our mind of a historic quarter that once presented the best of the city’s native domestic architecture. Today, due to the prevalent culture of unchecked encroachments and proliferation of multistoried structures, not a blade of grass or a tree is to be seen in the area. Karachi must be rated among the least female-friendly cities; the environment in historic Kharadar appearing particularly hostile to women and children, with scant safe meeting places.

The potential for transformation had emerged because Deputy Inspector General Karachi Police happened to be a learned officer interested in saving Sindh police heritage. Since funding for common good is always in short supply, I offered to provide pro bono guidance for the restoration of the endangered police structure and he bravely got his team to organize a workforce that would begin working under our guidance.

Deputy Commissioner (South) office gamely sprang into action and helped to curtail further encroachments by the neighouring mosque. An agreement was reached that they would limit their construction to the land they had already occupied.

And, the mosque committee reluctantly agreed to pull down some of their illegally-built shops. Due to the momentum we managed to clear away other derelict structures and consolidated as much of the open space as we could.

I designed a terracotta paved entry court in front of the historic structure, with the remaining retrieved area dedicated to a forest. A terracotta pathway and a zero carbon bamboo garden pavilion would provide a welcome respite in the evenings to women and children, cooped up in highly congested apartments in the vicinity.

As luck would have it, as the chowki restoration was nearing completion our sympathetic police officer was transferred. All the work came to a standstill. On our own steam, we managed o finish plantation of a couple of hundred trees in the designated forest area. I had hoped for the community to take charge to avoid encroachers taking over. But they felt helpless as we all do in the face of unrelenting powerful groups.

In September 2023 our luck turned, a new Deputy Commissioner, a development expert and an environmentalist at heart, took over and agreed to revive the old Kharadar project. On review we found that the qabza group had become even more daring and appropriated considerable public land for building a basement, constructing it perilously close to the historic chowki.

They had also built on part of the forest area. While they had grievously damaged the historic Police Chowki, they had uprooted all the trees we had planted to occupy the area for dumping mounts of building material for mosque expansion.

If it was not for the new Deputy Commissioner and his firebrand of a female Assistant Commissioner, the qabza group would not have relented. Through patient negotiations we got a signed agreement that the mosque committee would remove the basement structure built near the historic building as well as in the forest area. They also agreed to defray the cost of rehabilitating the heritage structure, along with removal of their building store and debris from public spaces that they had occupied.

In spite of a written undertaking, the qabza group did not remove the illegal basement structure and paid only partly for restoration of the historic building they had damaged. We were compelled to go ahead and complete the project, using the Foundation’s own reserves and some funds raised from well-wishers.

The project could not have progressed without active participation of Deputy Commissioner’s office, but what came as a pleasant surprise was the interest community members began to take in the completion of the project – helping to regulate pushcarts and other traffic while civil works proceeded, at the same time they procured the specified saplings and planted the 200-tree forest. Neighbouring residents fully took over, with children tending the forest by regular watering and even planting sunflowers and papaya saplings.

Today, the street forest, now named Kharadar Bagh, is flourishing, creating a cool haven that continues to provide escape from the intense heat the city is experiencing. During the day, visitors and passersby rest a while, refreshing themselves with sips of water from the Sabeel being maintained by the community.

There is a throng of women and children in the evenings enjoying the cool sea breeze in the only zero heat island of their neighbourhood. The project demonstrated its zero flood attributes by absorbing all the rainwater when heavy rains lashed Karachi a couple of months ago.

The Police Department has generously gifted the police post to the community as Kharadar Police Chowki Library. In a move to create a sustainable solution, Deputy Commissioiner (South) is in the process of notifying a citizens committee which will be chaired by Assistant Commissioner, Kharadar, to make the community responsible for maintaining the forest and library.

While we all worked together in a spirit of cooperation for decarbonization and greening of the area, the qabza group has continued undeterred with their multistoried construction audaciously taking over the remaining ancient graveyard space in the rear. As if that was not enough, with no fear of retribution, the group has mercilessly hacked down the graveyard’s century old trees.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024