Let's Make Sure We Live In Mumbai, not Next Delhi!!
No, we don’t want to be next Delhi. At least not after what's happening these days when people are not only not able to see clearly, but they are even struggling to breathe. The toxic air level is so damn high that the air is not even breathable. Air Quality Index had reached a level approximately of 500, where anything above 300 is considered Hazardous. And whom are we supposed to blame? Well, do I even need to answer that?
People are wearing masks and moving around, but have you ever given a single thought about the poor animals who also breathe the same air? Are we putting masks on their faces? Why are they suffering cause of us?
The social media was flooded with many memes and Hashtags like #DelhiSmog #Delhipollution. It's not just about laughing at these memes and spreading the word, it's also about knowing the seriousness of the problem. And taking steps to prevent it. (Well at this stage we can’t even prevent it)
Mumbaikars may say “Why do we care? Our city’s Air Quality Index might be just normal, we are able to breathe all normal”. The major reason behind this is the Sanjay Gandhi National Park & the Aarey Forests. These are our saviors. But guys do we even know that the Aarey Forests are in huge danger of being cut down. And this decision is not of a layman, but it's of our government. Yes, our government. Are we going to be safe if we cut down these forests?
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Aarey has over 5 lakh trees which filter the air we breathe. It is very rich in biodiversity & home to many tribes of Warli Aadivasis.
Cutting these trees off & disturbing the forest's biodiversity is surely gonna make us wear masks too! Be ready.
You ask why is Aarey going to be chopped off, right? The reason being our Government doesn’t consider Aarey Forests as a Forest. Woah! Strange to hear that, sadly it's true. MMRC (Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation) plans to build up a car shed for upcoming Metro project in the Aarey. Like seriously you got no other place but Aarey? Great! Although we have other options like Kanjurmarg, Back Bay, and some other options too & yet they wanna cut down Aarey for their economic benefits or maybe they are just keen on wearing masks for breathing!
The building of Metro Car shed in Aarey would mean chopping off of nearly 3.5k trees. Quite a large number right? Maybe not for our government.
MMRC has also changed the status of Aarey from No Development Zone to C-1 I.e. a Commercial Zone.
This is like “Khud ke pair pe kulhadi maarna.”
Planting of each new trees is of very much importance today & instead of that, these guys are just up to cutting down on around 3.5k trees. Damn heartbreaking.
We Mumbaikars need to stand up for this. For no one but ourselves. We can’t keep on saying that nothing's gonna change, it is the government they will do it as they say for their benefit. But guys don’t we need to stand up for our benefit, don’t we need to save what saves us? We do, correct. We cannot give up without trying and without raising our voices.