'DNA' eco-Ganesha: Eco-mandal moves against mining

A group of five housing societies in Sion, one of the earliest in the city to introduce the paper pulp Ganesh idols five years ago, now plans to further its eco-friendly agenda.

In sync with the country’s attention on coal scams and illegal mining, the Premsagar Seva Mandal will screen short documentaries on the issue in the society premises on Friday to spread awareness.

“The festival was started by Bal Gangadhar Tilak to organise Indians against the British. So it has always had a larger social relevance. Our idea is to spread awareness and initiate a discussion on coal mining and the deforestation it causes. A large screen will be installed for the screening and pamphlets detailing the destruction mining causes will also be distributed,” said Umesh Kamath, a resident of the Premsagar Housing Society and member of the committee organising the five-day-long Ganpati celebrations. The 12-member committee includes members from other societies —  Welfare Villa, Temple View, Shankar Kutir and Nirmal Kunj.

Kevan Dedhia from Welfare Terrace said, “We want to extend our ecological concerns to the more social issues. This year, we will replace felled trees in our locality with fresh saplings with a plantation drive involving children.”

Kamath said it was the residents’ love for forests and the example of a Greenpeace activist’s month-long stay atop a tree in the Chandrapur’s forest that got them interested in the issue. “Since our group frequently visits forests, particularly tiger reserves, we were intrigued by Brikesh Singh’s experiment (reported in DNA on August 26). When we saw videos of his journey, we decided to screen them and carry out discussions about the impact coal mining has on forests.”