It was just a month ago when the massive air pollution in Delhi had raised serious concerns over the safety of environment.
On Saturday, Afroz Shah, a Mumbai-based lawyer made the country proud by winning United Nations Environment Programme Award which seeks to prove that citizens can also make a difference in protecting the environment.
Shah is among five people and one agency in the world bestowed with the ‘Champions of the Earth award’ this year. Shah, 36, is known for leading a massive clean-up exercise at Versova Beach in Mumbai launched in October 2015.
Shah and his neighbour Harbansh Mathur, 84, who passed away earlier this year, had started manually cleaning Versova beach last year. The clean-up soon grew into a massive movement getting hundreds of volunteers to join hands. They have segregated over 4,000 tons of garbage so far.
Within a year, his work was recognised by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) as the ‘largest beach cleaning campaign in the world’ and his efforts as an example of the key role of citizen action in protecting the environment. The awards were announced on Friday night during a global conference on biological diversity in Cancum, Mexico.
Shah has received the award under the ‘Action and Inspiration’ category for kick-starting a campaign to pick up by hand, all the plastic bags, cement sacks, glass bottles, pieces of clothing, and shoes, that covered the entire 2.5-km stretch of the Versova Beach, even rising many feet high in some places.
“Shah’s efforts, and the hundreds of volunteers he’s inspired, is a wonderful example of citizen action and reminds the rest of the world that even the most ambitious, global agreements are as good as the individual action and determination that brings them to life. His outstanding leadership is drawing global attention to the devastating impacts of marine litter,” said United Nations Environment Project (UNEP) Chief Erik Solheim, who had joined Shah in the clean-up for a day in October.
“This award belongs to everyone who participated in the Versova beach clean-up in any way or will do so in the future. This honour has brought a huge responsibility as well. Now with the help of BMC and the state government, we will chalk out a multi-pronged strategy to make sure that our oceans are clean and safe,” said Shah.
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