Filled With Plastic, Next to a Garbage Pit: Reality of Ahmedabad’s Future Oxygen Parks in Makarba

As an Amdavadi, walking in Oxygen Parks has been a pride habit for many, but if you live in Makarba, your morning walk to take in the Oxygen can give you more than you asked for.

The area has two planned Oxygen Parks within 200 metres, but both feature something in common: plastic waste. Polythene bags and plastic wrappers made up for the flooring along with the green bed in these parks. 

One of them, also has an open garbage pit or khadkuva sharing its boundary without any wall parting the two, just a barbed wire.

Passing by one of the parks, one would think, will these Oxygen Parks really provide oxygen if they are littered with plastic waste? Or is it simply another green project whose purpose is defeated by poor planning and inadequate maintenance?

The sight of heaps of plastic waste and litter just behind the upcoming park raises concerns over whether the civic body’s vision extends beyond developing the park itself.

The situation has raised several questions:

If the objective of an Oxygen Park is to promote a cleaner environment, why does a dumping spot continue to exist just behind it?

Has AMC prepared a plan to remove the accumulated waste and prevent fresh dumping around the park?

Will the surrounding area be restored before the park is opened to visitors?

The first tree at the site was planted by Union Home Minister Amit Shah last June as part of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation's (AMC) 'Mission for Million Trees' campaign aimed at expanding the city's green cover.

The site is slated to be developed into an Oxygen Park by the AMC. Spread across nearly 3,658 sq m, the park will feature 380 mature banyan trees arranged in four blocks, along with 11,420 indigenous saplings, creating a large urban green space.