mid-day editorial: Calling Mumbai's green warriors to arms

Today is World Environment Day, and Mumbai is marking the day with a slew of programmes about environmental awareness, even as activists in the city are raising the volume in their protest against the number of trees that are on the chopping block for the ongoing Metro work. On Friday, activists in south Mumbai even held a funeral for trees that were felled for Metro work.

Green warriors seem to be in a perennial battle with builders and the government. While the city needs to expand its infrastructure to absorb the teeming millions, activists claim this is often at the cost of open spaces, causing ecological imbalance in the city. The obvious impact, of course, global warming, but the effect is also witnessed in incidents like animals straying into human settlements that were once their habitat.

It's true that everybody cannot be a green warrior or activist. In fact, even the best of organisations have been unable to stop trees from being hacked. However, let us become activists in our small ways, and try and take those small steps that we are able to. Stop the use of plastic as much as possible. Let's make our housing societies green with small plants, gift somebody a plant instead of flowers. Let us try and segregate our waste as much as possible. We have separate waste bins marked for wet and dry waste on public roads as well. Instead of grumbling about how the authorities have not bothered to spell out which is which, why not take five minutes out and educate ourselves about waste segregation. In this way, you will have done your bit for World Environment Day.

Life is not always about the grandiose gestures or the big battles, but oftentimes, it is about the tiny steps that inch us closer to the final goal.