Dear Honourable Minister of Environment and Climate Change:
Greetings from NatConnect Foundation on the eve of the World Oceans Day.
Leading scientists worldwide have determined that we need to protect at least 30% of our blue planet by 2030. World Oceans Day joins with many organizations on this important initiative. NatConnect Foundation joins the drive.
While there is a lot of focus and talk about protecting the oceans and seas, we would to draw the government’s attention to its own blue economy scheme; but without maintaining blue waters properly, how can anyone think of a blue economy.
A very important aspect of the blue economy is the constitutional rights of the fishing community which are being brazenly trampled with as various project proponents, including the Government owned ones, have been occupying fishing zones.
We have launched this social media campaign:
#TimeForNatureMumbai #MindYourSea #WorldOceansDay #ProtectOurHome
COVID-19 outbreak has taught us how Nature heals itself in the absence of human intervention and disturbance.
Continuing the World Environment Day events, we would like to call for a constant citizen vigil.
We are petitioning the Prime Minister of India and Maharashtra Chief Minister to focus on protecting the seas from constant pollution.
We have an ongoing Environment Awareness online petition addressed to the PM; we are updating it with the World Oceans Day message.
The relevance for Mumbai is that day in and day out, we keep dumping untreated sewer water into the sea. There is hardly any check on the untreated industrial waste that goes into the sea.
Moreover, we are reclaiming the sea under the guise of development thus leading to unseasonal floods in several parts of the City and its periphery.
The official environment policy must take into account the need to keep our blue planet clean and safe.
To top it all, the Government of India has planned a high speed Bullet Train project between Ahmedbad and Mumbai with the Japanese aid and this project will destroy 54,000 mangroves. This will cause tremendous environmental damage to Mumbai and surroundings as the number of mangroves to be literally massacred is not small – it is equivalent to two Olympic size stadium grounds!
JICA and the Japanese Govt have taken note of our petitions, but we need to keep up the pressure to save mangroves that protect the coast from storms and high tides.
NatConnect Foundation is taking up all these issues in its week-long social media campaign, beginning today – June 07, 2020.
Thanks and regards.
B N Kumar
Director –NatConnect Foundation
