Mumbai: Activists and experts on Tuesday said that Mumbai Metro 3 project and the Delhi-Mumbai Freight Corridor should be scrapped, as stopping industrialisation and urbanisation will ensure that jungles are able to prosper.
At a press conference organised by the Indian Environment Movement (IEM) and the Narmada Nav Nirman Abhiyan, several reports on climate change were shared with the media. IEM convenor Girish Raut said, “Global average temperature has started to rise by 0.20 degrees Celsius per year, and in the next five years, temperatures are going to rise by one degree celsius. Warming will become irreversible, and in the next 50 to 70 years, mankind will become extinct if the current temperatures continue.”
Mr. Raut said the Paris agreement in 2015, that saw 196 nations come together and agree to keep the increase in the global temperature in check, will be a failure, as by 2020-21 the temperatures will rise beyond the proposed two degrees celsius limit.
“Industrialisation and urbanisation must be stopped for jungles to be able to prosper. We feel the Metro 3 project and the Delhi-Mumbai corridor must be cancelled,” Mr. Raut said.
Dr. Shashi Menon, former head of biology department, Ruia College, said that climate change has two types of causes: natural, that is an increase in solar activity, or man-made activities such as cutting of trees. He proposed that citizens must plant and nurture trees, and that dependency on fossil fuels must be reduced.
“The original Bandra-Worli Sea Link project did not propose any embankments. A pillar at either end and one in the middle was initially proposed, so that the ends would not be blocked. However, due to several delays, the plan was cancelled and embankments were built on both sides, blocking the water flow. It is utter insensitivity to the ecosystem on the government’s part,” Dr. Menon said.
He said that a survey conducted by Yale University in 2014 titled ‘Indian Perspective on Climate Change’, showed that 71% of the Indians surveyed did not know that climate change was occurring in India. “People are not sensitive towards climate change. They need to understand this change. They need to have the right perspective, that policies like the Bandra-Worli sea link, metro could be stalled. We are not against development. It should happen, but with the ecosystem in tandem,” he said.
