Mumbai: 5-year-olds ask Japanese PM 'Shinzo Uncle' to Save Aarey

How best to get people to sit up and take note of what you have to say By getting cute children to convey your perspective of course The latest video going viral on the saveAarey issue has a bunch of cherubic fiveyearolds holding up placards and requesting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to Save AareyIn February a video featuring children and petitioning Prime Minister Narendra Modi to save Aarey had gone viral The ModiUncleSaveAarey video touched 25000 views on social media nonWhatsApp In the latest video the children are also seen pointing out the importance of Aarey forest to the cityAlso ReadGreens to take Save Aarey right to Japan funders doorAll the fiveyearolds in the video are those who live around the green lung and who regularly visit the area At the start of the video fiveyear old Arjun Mehta is seen speaking in Japanese requesting the Japanese PM to save AareyThe video also raises some important points such as how Mumbai is the worlds fourth most polluted megacity as per a WHO survey and how 100000 belowfiveyearolds had died in India in 2016 due to pollutionLancetAlso ReadActivists slap three complaints on MMRC over Aarey workJapanese subtitlesThe other children in the video which also has Japanese subtitles are Aarom Brahmbhatt Shuraya Singh Saisha Kothari Dhir Sachdeva Ankur Bankda Ayanna Kochar In the video the children say they are happy to have the Metro in Mumbai but are asking why a forest had to be cut down for a Metro car shed when there were so many other options aroundJalpesh Mehta from Empower Foundation who created both videos said The earlier video ModiUncleSaveAarey received a tremendous response across various several social media platforms Now we have made another video which has kids requesting the Japanese PM Shinzo Abe to Save Aarey Forest which is under threat from Metro work The underground ColabaBandraSeepz Metro III project is funded by Japanese International Cooperation Agency JICA Aarey forests rich biodiversity is crucial for the entire city We want our message to reach the Japanese PM2000 trees will be cutThe car shed or the car depot for Metro III is coming up on a 30hectare plot inside Aarey Milk Colony and will require the cutting down of more than 2000 trees It was because of the strong support to the movement by NGOs and activists that the government had even appointed an expert committee to suggest alternatives to the car depot But despite seven suggestions by the expert committee activists alleged that the government decided to go ahead and construct the depot inside Aarey after allThe video also speaks about JICA Japan approving the loan despite seven misrepresentations of MMRCL on Aareys wildlife and biodiversity We hope this firstofitskind international escalation will make the necessary noise to help move the Metro shed out of Aarey Mehta saidAlso ReadArt installations show support towards the Save Aarey MovementKids ruleHe added Both the prime ministers Narendra Modi and Shinzo Abe are proenvironment and we hope the request from the kids the next generation reaches them and they help save the forest In the whole process these fiveyearolds have become junior environmentalists and now prefer spending time in the forests rather than at play zones or on mobile phones At this young age they are able to influence more kids to get closer to nature besides making a lot of Mumbaikars aware about the rich biodiversity of Aarey2000No of trees that needs to be cut for 30hectare car shed30haArea of plot in Aarey where the Metro carshed is coming upCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates