All over the world, one thing that really stands out in stark contrast is the amount of destruction that mankind unleashes in the name of development.
So also, in a city like this, I was appalled when I came across the fact that the so called city planners were totally unprepared at the influx of people into the city and over the last 5 years or so, have unleashed unplanned development projects in the city... at the cost of high amounts of destruction - of nature.

The first prime targets of all development are the lungs of a city, the trees.

The destruction of trees in Indore began almost 4 years back, at various locations including the existing A.B.Road which passed outside the erstwhile old Indore city. The excuses given by the city planners was that the trees were a hindrance for development and hence they must go....

I wonder what kind of qualified planners these people are that they failed to recognise the need for building their designs around existing natural structures than destroying the structures to the extent that the whole city feels the impact.
Almost 40 odd trees were cut down on the Starlit road to widen it to accomodate more traffic and more commercial structures.
Around 100 odd trees were cut down on the A.B.Road all along from the outer ring road on the South till Scheme 74 on the North, under some plan, where they were to widen the road.
But today, the plan has been scrapped and no one has bothered to calculate and consider the loss they have unleashed by destroying trees that were probably more than 100 yrs old.

Open lands have been usurped by the builder politician nexus, killing the real spirit of progress for the city.

Unfortunate again, that the common citizen in that part of the country is one who seeks for his self, there is no collective conscience that the citizens bring together to ensure that their city preserves it's charm at least for the sake of the Nature that it was known for;

Shab-e-malwa - the glorified evening of Malwa - an erstwhile oft repeated Urdu phrase that described succinctly the glory of the breezy evenings of the Malwa plateau that Indore is part of, now no longer retains it's meaning or charm.
The balmy breezy evenings have been replaced by hot dusty winds that bring in dust covering everything in it's path, turning the landscape into a bleak, dreary, hot parched brown cover.
So much so the price to pay for development in once upon a time beautiful city.