Civic body projects harming surroundings: ‘environment ambassadors’ return awards

These environment experts, besides opposing the projects, have decided to create a public awareness campaign ‘Chalo Chipko’ to protest against tree cutting on April 29 near Sambhaji Park.

“We had gone to meet Municipal Commissioner Vikram Kumar to return the award, but he left the office right before our eyes, refusing to meet us. He said we must take prior appointment to meet him. He was very arrogant with us. We have submitted the awards to his office,” said Gurudas Nulkar, professor and director of Centre for Sustainable Development at the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics.

The municipal commissioner did not take the call when The Indian Express sought his response to the remarks made by environment experts and their returning of awards in protest of infrastructure projects.

Those who returned the award include Padma Shri awardee and former member of National Security Advisory Board Amitav Mallik, who is a member of Pune International Centre (PIC) and founding convener of Climate Collective Pune (CCP); Gurudas Nulkar–Professor and Director of Centre for Sustainable Development in Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics; Rajiv Pandit of Jividha; Ketaki Ghate of Oikos; activist Sathya Narayan; Ranjit Gadgil of Parisar; Shailaja Deshpande of Jeevitnadi; Anant Gharat of MY EARTH; Priyadarshini Karve of Samuchit Enviro; and Vaishali Patkar of CCP.

“I express deep disappointment at PMC taking harmful initiatives like RFD and roads at Vetal tekdi which will seriously affect climate resilience and the ecological balance of the city,” Mallik said. He further said, “I feel I should return the ‘Environment Doot’ memento awarded to me by PMC, unless or until I am able to make a difference in helping my government take the right direction on environment protection.”

Nulkar said, “The recent spate of decisions by PMC on natural elements has caused great anxiety to me and Pune residents. The cutting of thousands of trees for RFD and the road on Vetal Tekdi have raised serious concern.”

“I conclude that PMC is not bothered about the interest of its citizens and has made a mockery of democracy. I have no hesitation in giving up the title conferred by PMC,” he said, while expressing disgust at the way decisions are imposed upon citizens.

Karve said, “I do not wish to be part of what appears to be ‘greenwashing’ whereby local environmental experts are honoured in public, but their expert opinions are totally ignored in policy making.”

Patkar said, “We certainly felt honored when you recognised our efforts on behalf of PMC. It was not only an award for me, but a responsibility of carrying your genuine intentions of making Pune green and clean, and that we all were ambassadors of the change, wherein you wanted us to engage with citizens as messengers of this programme. However, at the same time PMC is also involved in concretising projects destructive to Pune’s natural heritage – hills, trees and rivers. We are absolutely saddened by events around us and seek constructive and committed action.”

On March 31, the PMC had honoured citizens working towards environment protection by conferring on them the ‘Paryavaran Doot’ award under the ‘Majhi Vasundhara’ campaign of the state government. “24 citizens were conferred with the award, of whom eleven of us have returned the award today and have reached out to others to do the same in the interest of the environment,” she said.