The Mahalaxmi racecourse, a 225-acre green patch in south Mumbai, is all set to become greener. The Royal Western India Turf Club has teamed up with Delhi-based The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) to launch an environment-friendly initiative on its premises.
While an energy audit and carbon footprint reading of the club are first on the agenda, its larger plans include a biodiversity resource park, a solar tree and installation of a biomethanation plant.
The project, called the Green Circle, was kick-started on Friday on the oval-shaped lush green facility in the presence of eminent personalities and club officials.
"We are going to leave behind a planet that our children will curse us for, unless we start facing the reality of climate change," warned Rajendra K Pachauri, director of TERI and one of the oldest researchers on climate change and the chairperson of UN's prestigious Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Pachauri raised the issue of depleting conventional resources and the importance of moving to renewable sources. "These finite resources are depleting and their use and production will be a growing reason for concern," he said.
"The plan was conceptualized six months ago and we roped in TERI to help us navigate through this idea. They will be advising us on all plans, including solar paneled lighting for all the lighting on the racecourse as well as street lights and waste-to-energy options," said Viren Razdan, project advisor.
Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah was present at the event, where he talked of the need for India to become independent of outside help for its energy needs.
"We need to wake up and start moving towards sustainable energy options. Eighty per cent of our foreign expenditure goes into energy imports. That money can instead be used for our people. We need to replace conventional energy with renewables in their smallest forms if not on a big scale, for instance solar water heaters and cookers," said Abdullah, citing examples of Europe and America, which have been recently hit by unexpected weather anomalies, as an indicator to the deteriorating climate.
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