Green warriors pledge taking fight against fast vanishing Parsik Hill to CM Devendra Fadnavis

Sumaira Abdulali left and Nandkumar Pawar at the Press Club yesterday PicSURESH KARKERAIt was where there is a Hill there is a way for determined green warriors who announced on World Environment Day yesterday Monday June 5 that they are stepping up efforts to save Parsik Hill from vanishing in the name of quarrying The Parsik Hill is in the Thane District This is a short mountain range which is part of the Western Ghats The famous Parsik tunnel on the Mumbai CSTKalyan mainline is in the hill The Hill is approximately 15 km of forests crossing into sections of both Thane and the north side of Navi Mumbai It had once earned the epithet of the Malabar Hill of Navi MumbaiRampant destructionThe meet at the Press Club at SoBos Azad Maidan saw mangrove warrior Nandakumar Pawar director of the nonprofit Shree Ekvira Aai Pratishthan SEAP making a strong case to save Parsik Hill Pawar said Parsik Hill is being destroyed by rampant quarrying This is a lush green forest area dotted with fully grown trees These rich pockets of nature do not belong to the Govt they belong to us the people We simply cannot afford to lose a mountain with fully grown treesPawar was putting his weight behind a just launched social communication campaign called IamParsikHill and IamDying by a Mumbai based Public Relations firm called Public Relations Council of India PRCI Pawar added he will file a Public Interest Litigation PIL at the National Green Tribunal NGT as a next step in his effort to save Parsik HillsDisappearing waterfallsWell known activist battling against noise pollution Sumaira Abulali of Awaaz Foundation said I am here to support the issue and warned that stopping quarrying will be a long battle The activist cited how fighting the sand mining mafia took at least 15 long years and we pressed the Govt to find an alternative to sand in their policies To our horror they found a substitute crushed stone Even stone quarrying leads to terrible degradationSumaira added that Just two years ago I think I was passing through the Parsik Hill area earlier there were numerous waterfalls that gushed through the green Today we see only craters the waterfalls have disappeared thanks to quarryingNandkumar Pawar Aka Mangrove WarriorJust wordsWhile the PRCI president B N Kumar stated that one should be inspired by Narendra Modis Environment Day 2017 theme call which was about connecting people to nature there was a feeling amongst speakers and journalists who were gathered there that it was hugely ironical that Modi talks about connecting people to nature but the Govt is busy passing projects and have policies that are not restricting quarrying and in fact support them This then connecting people to nature becomes one more Modiism which is snappy happy and pushes all the right buttons but without Govt support for the same remains a mere phrase rather than becoming realityA view of Parsik Hill with a train emerging from Parsik Tunnel one of the longest and oldest tunnels in Asia Responsible constructionSumaira explained In the end it is not individuals or even Non Governmental Organizations NGOs that can stop quarrying This is run by people with huge influence and connections The mafia by definition is violent and you cannot expect individuals to tackle that You cannot say Connect People with Nature when policies do not allow people to do soThe activists stressed that all their objections were based in reality Sumaira said We cannot do without sand or stone we have not found an alternate to cement Yet we need to be responsible about how much we need We need to construct responsibly In Mumbai we have so many flats just locked up unoccupied may be for investment purposes or simply not bought This is irresponsible constructionPawar seconded her and stated that they will also press CM Devendra Fadnavis to move on the quarrying in Parsik Hill We will seek a meeting with him soon he stated though he did admit that previous efforts to evince any reply from the CM too have been futile It once again forced people to ask that if the PM is talking about Connecting People with Nature and the Maharashtra CM remains mute spectator to the vanishing Parsik Hill is the Govt talking on two different planes PRCI has initiated an online petition on changeorg platform addressed to the Chief Minister and posted some videos on youtubeAs the interactive session ended Kumar who has been a Navi Mumbai resident for 35 years signed off saying Residents are awoken to the sound of blasts due to the quarrying in Parsik Hill when earlier we used to wake up to the sweet sound of bird song