One of the longest human chains comprising of nearly 1500 Mumbaikars which included professionals, tribals, doctors, fisherfolks, school children, garbage collectors, managers, teachers, government officials, lawyers, media professionals, college goers, scientists, celebs, environmentalists, artists had gathered at Marine Drive to demand a green manifesto from our leaders who are not only engaged in foul mouthing each other but even the environment.
India has seen its political parties out on roads when vegetables prices soar high, when petrol prices soar high but has never seen any protest when climate crises soar high. It is in times like these that environmentally conscious citizens unite to form a human chain and demand the attention of the development-crazy political fraternity to pay attention to the burgeoning environmental degradation each day due to unsustainable development policies.
The demand for an Environmentally Friendly manifesto becomes the need of the hour or else we will have to lose a susbstantial portion of Aarey Forests and Sanjay Gandhi National Park in addition to the coastal ecosystem and little left biodiversity. The following are the demands made by the citizens under a Green Manifesto:
- No further destruction of trees around the city
- Improvement of air quality index of Mumbai
- Protection of last forests of Mumbai
- Implementing of one-time use Plastic Ban in real
- Protection of wet lands, rivers, lakes, coasts and all natural resources
- Making composting of wet waste mandatory for all and recycling of dry waste
- Protection of wildlife, their habitats and animal rights
- All new construction projects to be planned considering natural resources without causing any harm to it
- Open areas and parks for children and senior citizens
- Chemical free food
- Protection of indigenous people of Mumbai like Warli Tribals (Adivasis) and FisherFolks (Koli)
We want our leaders to discuss, debate, and deliberate on the protection of our precious natural resources rather than indulging in jingoism and demagogy.
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