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. Pic/SURESH KARKERA

It 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 CST-Kalyan 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 Mumbai.'

Rampant destruction
The meet at the Press Club at SoBo's Azad Maidan saw 'mangrove warrior' Nandakumar Pawar, director of the non-profit 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 trees."

Pawar 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 Hills.

Disappearing waterfalls
Well 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 degradation."

Sumaira 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 quarrying."

Nandkumar Pawar, Aka Mangrove Warrior

Just words
While the PRCI president B N Kumar, stated that one should be inspired by Narendra Modi's 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 Modi-ism, which is snappy, happy and pushes all the right buttons but without Govt support for the same, remains a mere phrase rather than becoming reality.

A view of Parsik Hill with a train emerging from Parsik Tunnel, one of the longest and oldest tunnels in Asia

Responsible construction
Sumaira 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 so."

The 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 construction."

Pawar 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 change.org platform addressed to the Chief Minister and posted some videos on youtube.

As 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."