The lush green Sadhna Society Park

BHOPAL: When he shifted to his new house in Sadhna Enclave on Hoshangabad Road from Char Imli in 2014, the area wore a deserted look. Very few occupied the houses here and there were virtually no trees and plants. It was quite in contrast to his official bungalow in Char Imli, which had rows of occupied houses and greenery all over.

For a man, who believes in the idea of “go green, be happy”, it was simply not acceptable and thus began his pursuit to convert a 12,000 sq feet barren land into a park.

Indian Forest Service officer of the rank of principal chief conservator of forest, who is at present working with the State Planning Board, Y Satyam had a fair idea about landscaping, saplings, hedges and other technicalities, which goes into making of a garden. He wholeheartedly undertook the arduous task with the help of the families living here and helped in the makeover of this residential area of Bhopal.

Satyam began his mission in the year 2015 and three years later, not only the 12,000 sq feet area has been transformed into a garden with lush green grass, tall shaded trees, flowering plants, beautifully shaped hedges but vacant residential plots in the colony, which are in plenty, also boast of trees, which Satyam planted with the help of gardeners that he hired to make his dream come true. “I planted three saplings on the edge of each vacant plot, which have now grown into full-fledged trees”, said Satyam.

The park is now a sea of green and soothes the eyes of visitors and has a wide variety of herbs, shrubs and plants. Beautiful roses, colourful florae, neem, palm and rubber trees along with many other flowering plants has totally transformed the barren place in the wink of an eye.

Satyam said, “I am fortunate that the colony has many affluent families and everybody agreed to my plan to revamp the area with greenery. We spent every penny from the society funds and I made sure to contribute a little more from my personal fund to make my dream come true. We didn’t involve any other agencies, be it government or private. It was my endeavour.”

Secretary of the colony Mahesh Kumar said “I shifted to this place seven months ago and I was awestruck with the greenery. It is a dream to live in such a serene area and I’m happy assisting in the task of maintaining the park.”

“Decorating the vacant space with trees was the most challenging task. It was 500 metres in length and we planted kadam along with other trees, but to avoid interlocking of their roots, we planted the saplings at a safe distance from one another so as to provide them adequate space to grow. It was a tedious task for the gardeners and I had to stand there for 3 to 4 hours every day to put the plan into action,” said Satyam.

