How’s your environment work going on?’ A question thrown at me by all and sundry every second day! ‘My “environment work”?’ I am amused, dismayed and infuriated all at the same time. Very politely I reply ‘Excuse me Sir, isn’t the environment work yours too?’ Then there is a momentary silence! Been there, seen it, experienced it!
Let’s pause in the midst of our relentless push to survive and fulfil our ‘aspirations’, as defined in today’s world. More buildings, more roads, more cities, more gadgets, more vehicles etc. etc.
Yes, ye dil maange more! Can we pause, reflect and look our children in the eyes and say that we have left the earth in the same state if not better from what we inherited from our parents?
Let us get to a very elementary understanding of the environment from a lay person’s eyes. Air and water. Two things we need to stay alive for the day. What really is the state of it today? Our country has the dubious distinction of having seven out of 10 most polluted cities in the world.
Little do people realise the impact of this dubious distinction. It simply means that more than a million lives would be lost, billions yes billions of dollars spent on medical aid and with little success.
Cities like Mumbai would probably figure as the tuberculosis capital of the country. With almost 40% of its inhabitants living in sub human conditions with little access to basic life requirements.
Slums and SRA buildings have little access to sunlight or breeze especially the lower floors. What makes the air space of the city as a whole more toxic is the infusion of SPM (Suspended Particulate Matter) thanks to relentless digging of roads and construction activities.
To make it the perfect decimator add toxic gases from the four horrendous open mixed waste dumping grounds located INSIDE the mangroves of an Important Bird Area which has one and a half lakh wetland birds in it.
SPM is recognised worldwide as the silent killer in pollution related casualties. Mumbaikar’s lungs are equivalent to cigarette ashtrays with the difference that ash has been substituted by dust.
Conditions imposed by the watchdog Maharashtra Pollution Control Board like sprinkling of water to contain dust at site are relegated to the dustbin by the numerous contractors and agencies involved in construction activities in the city.
The MPCB is the most powerful agency in place to give the city a pollution-free environment but time has proven that they fare worse than paper tigers.
Reason is that the money spinner, the most powerful department in the government is the Urban Development Department which silently bulldozes its way violating all laws in the process. How on earth can a pollution board officer file an FIR against the mighty Municipal Commissioner? So let us be realistic and accept the helplessness of the MPCB.
The dust in the zone of 15 feet from the ground had a natural filter which kept soaking the dust on itself rather than let it find a resting place in our lungs. Yes, you guessed it right, I mean the trees with its low branches and foliage kept soaking the dust thereby taking off much of it from the breathing space.
But even this defence has been shred ruthlessly by the mindless hacking of all low branches with foliage in it. Things have reached a stage where the illiterate, insensitive contractors are running amok, denuding the tree of all branches that give shade on the roads.
Creation of more heat generating zones is certainly no way to combat climate change or combat air pollution. Every project in the city be it road widening, drainage channels, utility canals etc. is planned and undertaken with the foregone assumption that trees are disposable and need not be conserved.
To understand the truth of compensatory afforestation and transplantation, one only needs to visit the sites where this is supposed to have been done. Rest assured not more than 10% of the saplings or trees survive this exercise.
Hidden amidst the forest of five lakh trees in Aarey Colony, Mumbai is a graveyard of transplanted and afforested saplings. Trees destroyed in Colaba and South Mumbai are supposed to be compensated by plantations in Aarey?
So citizens of south/central Mumbai who enjoyed the ecosystem benefits of the trees in their backyards will travel to Goregaon to avail of it once again? The environmental absurdity is beyond comprehension.
The courts of law have held that trees must be compensated or transplanted in the same vicinity from where they were displaced. There is practically no example to show from the destroyers of the trees that the court orders are respected and implemented.
The city of Mumbai has not produced a national level track and field athlete in more than a decade. Not surprising, considering that the children of the city cannot run for 50 metres without gasping for breath.
Before the age of five almost all children in the city have undergone extensive antibiotic treatments to combat respiratory illnesses which, in turn, has long term effects on their health.
The city has produced an entire generation of weak lunged physically challenged children and the present generation of parents have to accept their failure to provide the kids with the basic element of life—namely, pure air. Live with that guilt and provide money for medical expenses to reduce the guilt.
Don’t bother to save the environment, save yourselves. If there was a time to save the environment it was yesterday. You have missed the bus. Wake up and save your children. It’s the least you can do.
(STALIN DAYANAND is a Conservationist and Director of NGO Vanashakti)
