Meet the man responsible for this artfully done up traffic island 'garden', who describes himself as a landscape consultant and calls his work a form of "performing art" - S Kumar L Shah, proprietor of The Green Thumb, which won first prize for the best gardens in Mumbai for the year 2000, awarded by the National Society for the Friends of the trees, in cooperation with the tree Authority and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

"When I started out in 1973, people told me my choice profession would have me to starve to death," says Shah, seated in his office at SantaCruz. What started out as a small nursery then, is today a concern engaged in professional landscaping, planning, designing, installation, renovations and maintenance.

Green Thumb has to its credit clients like Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, ONGC, CIDCO, Britannia, the Orchid Hotel, BMC and the minister of health of Muscat, among others.

Attempting to establish a career as a landscape artist at a time when there was no concept of designer gardens wasn't an easy task for Shah. He says, "There was no concept of land adoption at that time. Asian Cables gave us our first assignment - the island opposite Oberoi Towers, which we've been maintaining for 23 years now." The rest, as they say is history.

For me, they are not mere gardens. For example, in the case of a traffic island, I examine the surrounding area, elevation, tree cover, hoarding, trafficking and then create the design in my mind." What starts out as a mental visualization is then sketched out on paper.

"For a civil engineer, designing a structure is a simpler job because his building will come up just as he has planned it. But a landscape artist has to think in terms of what his design will look like five years from now, because the medium he deals with will grow and spread." And the creativity doesn't end there. His masterpieces need constant care, cutting, pruning and fertilizing.

Shah explains that there are basically two schools of landscape designing : the Japanese and the Oriental. That his work is an amalgamation of both schools is visible from his projects, the most famous being the former circular Britannia traffic island at Haji Ali that won many awards.

Some other famous works of Green Thumb include the triangular island opposite Oberoi Towers, with the hard-to-miss 'scrapture' (a sculpture made out of scrap) of a rhino, made by artist Arzan Khambatta, and the island outside Asiatic Stores, Churchgate.

But the creative process that Shah deals with is not all about art and imagination. "There's a lot of red tape involved. What is needed is for politicians to be made more aware and for bureaucrats to implement plans.

"I once designed a five acre garden for Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray. He took a lot of interest in my work and encouraged me. Since then, I believe, a lot of avenues have opened up for me."

Caring for plants and trees extends beyond being just a profession for Shah, Presently, he's involved in saving a dying 75-year-old coconut tree located at the Ram Krishna Mission, Khar.

"It is just a matter of individual awareness. When people see me doing things like this they too take an active interest." Besides through the nursery, he gives free plants to charitable institutions and private campaigns.

Shah want to go on creating such awards winning masterpieces but minus the red tape and politics involved. "Very often people are reluctant and say, what if somebody plucks the flowers. I say, if people pluck flowers let them pluck. Unless they see such beautiful gardens how will they learn to appreciate nature's beauty."