BENGALURU: Instead of spending her Sunday watching cartoons or playing with friends, seven-year-old Avani was busy registering her protest against the controversial steel flyover with her beautiful painting, which had trees crying for protection! She was among over 100 children who had gathered at Sheesh Mahal, Palace Grounds in an event organised by the Citizens for Bengaluru (CfB), which is leading the protest against the flyover.
Asking where will all the birds go if trees are cut, little Avani said, “Trees give us shade and shelter. They also provide us with fresh air. If all the trees are cut from where shall we get the fresh air?”
Like Avani, Rohith, a 3rd standard student of ACS School, portrayed the decrease of green cover in the city. “It is the duty of every one of us to save trees from being cut,” he said.
Renowned artist S.G. Vasudev was seen helping the children with their paintings. “Children should be aware of the environment they live in, because they are the ones who will suffer in future if projects like steel flyover come up taking the lives of hundreds of trees. Whether we win or lose does not matter, but we need to come out and register our protest against projects that destroy the nature,” he said.
Singer N.D. Pallavi lent sang popular songs on nature written by Kannada poets.
CFB to monitor all projects
“Our fight will not end after stalling steel flyover project. In future, we will work towards preparing environmental impact assessment for every single developmental project,” said Mr Prakash Belawadi, theatre person and founder member, Citizens for Bengaluru.
The CfB will get the help of independent experts and volunteers to prepare environmental impact assessment for projects and will ensure that the details relating to the project are available to the public at www.citizensforbengaluru.in <http://www.citizensforbengaluru.in/> .
They are also planning to set up a device which will monitor the air pollution levels and will also take water samples from lakes to monitor the water pollution.
