Rebranded
FB page ‘Boom City Doom City’ to focus on community message
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| Destruction of hills of Navi Mumbai can be seen from a distance of at least 5 KM. |
MUMBAI,
May 9, 2018: Aiming to maintain a sustained campaign, a
group of social communication experts have rebranded their Facebook page ‘Save
Nature Save City’ as Boom City Doom
City.
This part of the #BoomCityDoomCity
drive launched on the Earth Day.
“Mumbai and its surroundings will face a terrible
environmental disaster if the all round wanton destruction continues,” said
Nandakumar Pawar, director of NGO Shri Ekavira Aai Pratishthan (SEAP), speaking
at the seminar powered by communication professionals’ body Public relations
Council of India (PRCI).
The Parsik Hill range in
Navi Mumbai has already suffered an irreparable damage due to reckless
quarrying with some hills facing the danger of extinction. The forest quarrying
has been stopped department is on record complaining against massive violation
of quarrying norms by unscrupulous operators in CIDCO area of Navi Mumbai. As
much as 264.1 hectares has been mined against the permissible area of 138.07
hectares, the deputy conservator of forests, Thane, said during a recent
meeting of te district level environment assessment authority.
The Authority has ordered a
joint study by forest department and CIDCO while according a conditional
clearance to private company for mining the hills in two hectares at Borivali
village in Navi Mumbai even as a group of residents protested against quarrying
of Parsik Hills in another area, Kharghar.
“We are aware that stone chips are needed for
infrastructure. We are not against development, but our concern is it should
not happen at the cost environment damage,” said B N Kumar, Chairman of
governing council of PRCI said.
Turning to the island City’s
mangrove crisis, he said the authorities ought to have planted over 93,000 saplings
over 21 acres in Manori. Sadly, just about 20% of these barely survived. At
Charkop, the situation is even worse. Of the 86,400 saplings hardly 5%
survived.
Pawar claimed that the
authorities manage to get reprieve at courts by saying that they will replant
to make up for the mangroves destroyed due infrastructure development. In
reality, they manage to mislead the judiciary as mangroves are supposed to grow
naturally and they are not replanted.
“I am a fisherman by birth
and I know the importance of mangroves,” he said and remarked: “Sadly these
officers are either unaware of the basic facts or deliberately ignore the
environmental care,” he remarked. Mangroves survive only in mudflaps and where
there are ideal conditions to grow and not in rocky area. “This is
commonsense,” he remarked.
These and all other
environmental issues confronting our cities will be tackled comprehensively
through our rebranded page: Boom City – Doom City, said Kumar.
“We will also deal with urbanization
that is impacting the environment across the country, and even the world,” he
added.
