Pune :
The people’s movement that mobilized support to save the hills of Pune has once again come together to oppose a slew of decisions by the State Government that threaten the ever-decreasing green and open spaces, hills and rivers of the city.
Earlier last year the Housing Department issued a notification allowing housing projects in No Development/Green Zones across the entire State. More recently the State Government deleted 4.25 acres from the Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary and allotted more than 10 acres from the Empress Garden for staff quarters. An online petition against cutting down Empress Garden garnered more than 30,000 signatures from irate citizens in just a few days.
To make things worse, the Government has planned 100’ wide roads inside the riverbed and has also decided to build concrete embankments on both sides of the river, squeezing it to release lands for commercial development under the Riverfront Development Project.
All these decisions have been flayed by environmentalists who have decided to take to the streets under the Green Pune Save Pune Movement, an umbrella group of more than a dozen civil society organizations and individuals in the city.
A press conference organized at PatrakarBhavan was attended by Members of Parliament Anu Aga and Vandana Chavan, eminent environmentalist Dr. Madhav Gadgil, Town Planner Aneeta Gokhale-Benninger, Ar. Sarang Yadwadkar, Hon. Secretary Empress Garden, Suresh Pingale, ArunFirodia, Ajit Abhyankar, and members of various prominent city NGOs.
The Movement announced its decision to launch a signature campaign against all the anti-environmental and anti-people decisions taken recently by the State Government and appealed to all Punekars to get as many signatures as possible from their local areas. Similar signature campaign and demonstrations on the road by thousands of citizens from all walks of life had forced the Government to notify the BDP reservation in 2015, despite opposition from vested interests. The Movement has also raised the issue of the long-pending compensation policy for land acquisition for the BDP reservation. The green movement has been fighting a campaign against construction inside the river and dumping of debris in the riverbed and warned thatsuch actions against the environment never work out in the long run, as nature will push back with a vengeance. Recently there have been cases in Uttarakhand, Chennai, Bangalore and Mumbai, where choking the water bodies led to disastrous flooding, with irreparable loss of life and property. It emphasized the need for cleaning of the polluted river and not commercializing it.
