Groups of people across Mumbai, united by nothing other than their desire to give of themselves to protect ecology in the city, have been challenging the authorities for a while now. It is easy to miss these campaigns and actions. Each issue generates its own energy, each story gets reported or told in its own space, and each set of people are forced to focus on one or another.

But what is unfolding across the city is perhaps unprecedented—people of different persuasions and armed with different skills have been standing up to the authorities to save mangroves, the Mahalaxmi Racecourse, the Sanjay Gandhi National Park and its hills, the Aarey forests, and more.

A growing pattern of citizen resistance

Connect the dots. What emerges is a picture of determined resistance by Mumbaikars against the onslaught that the authorities—the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and the state government—have been making on the city’s ecology.

Of course, it is always peddled in the name of ‘development’, and ecologically damaging exclusive infrastructure is tagged as ‘public projects’. The authorities, who should have acted as the custodians and guardians of the city’s ecology, seem hell-bent on ruining it. But people have found it in themselves to stand firm, to challenge the authorities, and to persist in their resistance.

Citizens bringing different skills to the fight

Those who know the law are willing to educate others; those who have professional expertise have decoded project documents and drafted letters to the authorities, including Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis; those who have protested earlier are guiding the rest; those who are creative have written and recorded songs; those in the area have been keeping a close watch and sharing photos or videos to alert the authorities.

Mumbaikars, pressed for time as we tend to be, have been speaking up for the city’s........

© Free Press Journal