Reclaiming land: Transforming an urban wasteland
A foul-smelling dump site in Coimbatore has been turned into a green oasis, with hundreds of native plants. It's all thanks to the efforts of one woman. She's now been granted permission to transform other waste areas in the city.
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00:00 Until a few years ago, this was just a barren wasteland.
00:07 Now it's a beautiful garden.
00:09 We are in a residential area in Pilamedu, on the eastern edge of Coimbatore in southern
00:15 India.
00:16 The garden was created by Tenimori Mohankumar.
00:20 She moved to the area so that her daughters could study here.
00:27 This place is exactly opposite my house.
00:30 It was just used as a dump yard.
00:32 When I asked people about it, they said it had been like this for 36-37 years.
00:38 They even found it quite scary to walk past this plot.
00:45 The one who most inspired her to address the problem was her mentor, C.R.
00:50 Swaminathan, the former CEO of Coimbatore's PSG College.
00:55 He supported her idea right from the start.
01:01 But within 20 days, he passed away.
01:03 Still, his words urging me to change this place sealed my determination.
01:09 Her first step was to do some research.
01:11 It soon became clear that the land was a so-called reservation, owned by the state.
01:17 Such areas often lie waste and quickly become a dumping ground.
01:25 If people start dumping garbage somewhere, it's hard to stop them.
01:29 So many were against me.
01:30 They'd randomly yell at me.
01:32 I was browbeaten.
01:34 They were just waiting for me to fail.
01:36 But I took it as a challenge.
01:39 Tenimori Mohankumar faced a lot of red tape before she could get permission to redesign
01:45 the area.
01:46 After that, it took just a few months to transform the wasteland into a garden.
01:51 And her neighbours love it.
01:58 One plus about the garden is that the flowers attract different varieties of butterflies.
02:03 Also, there are six ducks and a rabbit.
02:07 So the kids love coming here.
02:09 They call it the duck park.
02:11 This park stands out as everything is integrated here.
02:15 It's entirely different from other children's parks.
02:20 Initially, we were eager to see what this place would become.
02:27 Tenimori's determination and hard work has changed it into a beautiful garden.
02:36 There are many unused reserve areas in Coimbatore that belong to the state.
02:41 Tenimori Mohankumar has now been commissioned to turn them into parks too.
02:47 Many residential areas in Coimbatore have parks that are not maintained.
02:51 People in those areas shouldn't wait for corporations or NGOs or even some strangers to take action.
02:57 Residents should join forces and change the place.
03:00 That would benefit their entire surroundings.
03:04 Once Tenimori Mohankumar's daughters have finished their studies, she'll move away again.
03:09 Her hope is that local residents will then continue to maintain their garden.
03:14 (upbeat music)