The sea trees are best seen from space — for only the satellite’s eye can do justice to their fields of emerald (viridian) green florets. At eye level, that is, from an earthly vantage point, however, the mangroves of Hawkesbay look like a sleight of nature’s hand: for how do these overloaded prickly bushes sit on the water? Their secret is to stand on spindly legs cleverly concealed beneath its surface.

The ambiguity surrounding this area’s ownership is thus being battled out in several court cases. For the purposes of this article, we had to scour through 74 documents and nine maps (and these were only the documents we were able to uncover).

The more documents you come across, the deeper you can assume the corruption goes. If you ask Amber Alibhai of NGO Shehri — Citizens for a better environment, which fights land grabbers in Karachi’s courts, “Many times, too much documentation is done to convolute the truth.” In any other part of the world, multiple government papers would be markers of veracity. Not so in Karachi.

However, as is the case with most of this city’s green or historic assets, our ability to exert our civic will upon them is inversely proportional to the terminal velocities at which they cease to exist. All you need to know is that if a real estate project starts selling flats in what used to be a mangrove forest, you can decide not to live there.

Special thanks to Dawn GIS team, Mahim Maher, Advocate Zubair Abro and NGO Shehri- Citizens for a better environment.