Minimum open space in Maximum City

BREATHING SPACE: three acres of open space for every 1,000 people in Mumbai.

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Mumbai: The country’s commercial capital is one of the most cramped cities in the world: just three acres of open space for every 1,000 people when the global benchmark is 12 acres.

No exaggeration then to say that a car in Delhi has more space than a person living in Dharavi, Mumbai’s biggest slum. "For mankind to survive open spaces are mandatory. Mankind's well-being—emotional, psychological, spatial—is ensconced in open spaces,” says Neera Punj, convener of green group Citispace.

Successive state governments have signed-off land reserved for parks, playgrounds and lakes to private developers, resulting in Mumbai turning into a concrete jungle.

A recent census found that Mumbai has lost 25,000 trees in 2008 alone. Environmentalists say urban planners must protect Mumbai’s green cover and citizens take the lead too.

Sanjay Hegde and Vinod Valecha, residents of suburban Juhu, protected their patch of open space in the neigbourhood. The two have been pursuing a five-year long legal battle to save the open space that was once a green belt but could soon have a private club.

"For building the club the authorities have given permission to uproot 175 trees," says Hegde.

Mumbai little patches of green need green warriors like Hegde and Valecha.

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