Me Pan Mumbaikar

Hey you! Don’t be afraid! I am not going to harm you, even though you’re in my territory! I mean no harm to you, though I am not sure you mean the same towards me?

Do you realise your trespassing on my territory, destroying my home, cutting off my food supply, and you expect me not to react? And when I do react it’s called animal attack! But then aren’t you doing the same to me?

I heard that you plan to cut down trees and plan to plant new ones on allocated land. But here lies the problem, you’ll cut down trees that are hundreds of year old  only to plant saplings. Trees that have been alive way before your time, will be felled to make way for your greed (cause let’s face it that’s your ulterior motive), and knowing how you are I don’t think those saplings too will survive for long! I’ve seen posters featuring the CM and the PM  who are planning to plant 30 crore or so trees. Isn’t it ironic that the same people who sanction the felling of trees, or do nothing to prevent it promise the planting of more trees.

I heard they want to chop trees to build a metro shed, a parking a lot, a zoo. All this at the cost of the environment. And isn’t it ironic that you want to take away my freedom, putting me in cages and enclosures, and charge people just to see us in captivity at the cost of our freedom.

You have the Fit India Movement, but how can a nation be fit if the air you breathe is constantly deteriorating? With all these wanton feeling of trees, to satiate your greed, it will surely take you the Delhi way. Then how can you have a fit India if the very air you breathe is bad? So you looking at progress bit progress at what cost? The cost of your health, the cost of the environment? Very soon the only trees you’ll be able to see would be in a tree museum, the only leopards and panthers you’ll be able to see is of the stuffed kind, if we don’t survive captivity.

You have celebs and politicians talking about plastic bans and saving the rivers, how about doing something to Save Aarey, saving the flora and fauna that would be lost forever, saving the tribals and the animals who would loose their homes and sources of food. You can email, tweet, tag, those responsible, asking them for answers, questioning  their motives, bringing them to the book. Your one small action can create a ripple effect, can affect a change. If not for us then for your future generations who wouldn’t know what a clean environment would be like, a Wall-e like situation. 

But end please do it for us, after all me pan Mumbaikar. And don’t worry I will wouldn’t eat you, after all I don’t want to ruin my diet!

A Bike ride through Aarey

What happens when your daily social responsibilities get you running late for office (no, no, not the NGO kind but the daily post on social media), you take your bike, I mean Activa, and go to office. 

If you’re a Mumbaikar then you are well aware that getting into a local at peak hours is a next to impossible task unless your are up for the challenge. So not wanting to be crushed in a crowded local, and having no better option, the only thing to do was to ride all the way office, and cutting through Aarey would be an ideal way to save time.

Once again, as Mumbaikars are well aware of, the temperature in BNP, or Borivali National Park, and Aarey is always a few degrees lower than that of the areas that surround it. So as soon as you enter Aarey, you are embraced by this coolness that relaxes you and refreshes the senses. The lushness of the foliage, just after the rains, is soothing balm to the weary eyes. Everywhere that the eyes see you notice small riverlets and streamlets flowing, running, gushing.

The air has this crispness, this freshness, fresher than any place in Mumbai, save BNP. You feel a cool gentle breeze against your skin, as you make your way riding the slopes, the ups and downs, the twist and turns of the road. Or as we runners would call it, a rolling terrain, or is it rolling hills.

The trees on either side of the road seem to be reaching out to each other, meeting over the road,  touching each other so as to create a canopy shielding the road below from the elements of nature. Creating a sort of tunnel like the ones created during the bridal march at weddings.

Sadly these little joys of having a green patch within the city won’t be there for too long as the greed of man and their scrupulous nature wouldn’t have it that way. With the eye on prime property, under the pretext of progress, Aarey is being poached on little by little.

Sadly the generations to come would never know Aarey, would never know that there used to be a green patch within the bustling city. The only way they would know Aarey would be through a footnote in some book or through some newspaper or magazine documenting Aarey’s struggle for survival. 

Till then lets make the most of the beauty that we have been blessed with, to do our best to conserve, protect, fight for it, save it, for a better, greener and cleaner future for the generations to come.

How Green is my City: Save Aarey

Have you ever ridden in Aarey??? Have you ever run in Aarey??? Have your ever breathe the air in Aarey???

Aarey with its slopes and twists and turns offers challenges to runners and riders alike. If slopes are your thing and you love a challenge, then Aarey is the place for you. Running up the slope can fill you with breathless exhilaration. The cool breeze on your face, fills your lungs with air so pure that running up and down can be quite orgasmic.

The air in Aarey is pure and refreshing, unlike any place in Mumbai, apart from the Borivali National Park. It refreshes you and fills your heart and soul with unbridled joy. And the smell from the tabelas just adds to it, you don’t even mind it.

Everywhere you look you see Green foliage, the colour that symbolises growth, harmony, freshness and fertility, with a strong emotional correspondence to safety. No wonder Aarey is called the Green Lung of the city. 

Sadly the Green that our politicians and builders see is the Green of Greed and envy. Under the pretext of development they are looking at making the most money they can from land grabbing. Building a car shed is just an excuse for their ulterior motive. Overheard that they want to make a zoo in Aarey. If they can’t even take care of the existing Jijamata Udayan, which is in a sad condition, how will they look after another zoo.

Don’t get me wrong, I am all for development, but let not development come at the cost of our health and future. The BMC has put signage saying “Green Mumbai Clean Mumbai”. Sadly when you keep felling trees for any frivolous reasons then where will the Green be in Mumbai. At this rate there may come a situation where the only tree you would see would be in a tree museum and you would need to pay to see them.

Today it may be just be a patch of land, but this could be start of the land grab. Neither Aarey nor Sanjay Gandhi National Park is safe from the scrupulous greed of man. 

We may complain about animal attacks, but if we are encroaching their territory and cutting off their food supply, then where should they go? Just like man, when he has used up the resources of one place, moves to the next place, or when they move to greener pastures, these animals are doing just that. 

I know of many groups, many friends who are involved in these groups, who are in the fight to Save Aarey, fighting the good fight, organising peaceful protest, mobilising people through social media and through WhatsApp groups, organising runs, discussion forums and talks, educating people, trying to awaken people to the importance of having tree cover, the importance of Aarey to Mumbai. Hopefully we can awaken to their effort. We don’t want our future generations to ask us how Green was our city.

We all need to come together to do our bit not just to Save Aarey or the trees, but to save our future. We are already experiencing the effects of global warming, preventing the destruction of our forest lands would be a step in the right direction. 

We need to Save Aarey for better, Green future.