From Chipko march to notifying Guardian Minister, how Pune is resisting present RFD plans

Kulkarni, who belongs to the BJP, has insisted that the RFD should beryllium carried retired without harming nature. Across the city, galore groups are opposing the methods successful which the RFD is being implemented. While Kulkarni takes the conflict to the top, determination is on-ground mobilisation to nonstop a beardown connection against the RFD successful Pune. On February 9, citizens and organisations nether the umbrella of Pune River Revival organised a Chipko March nether the tagline “Save Trees, Save Rivers”. It volition commencement astatine the Kalmadi High School and culminate astatine the Ram Mula Confluence successful Baner.

“The crushed for the march is that the RFD enactment from Wakad to Sangvi has started. Currently, the enactment is going connected on the PCMC side. On the PMC side, thousands of trees, similar the Indian willow, person been tagged. We volition locomotion to the Ram-Mula confluence and hug the trees that person been tagged. That is wherefore we are calling this the Chipko march. These are old-growth practice trees, immoderate of which are 100-200 years old,” says Prajakta Mahajan, a subordinate of Pune River Revival.

“We person been told that the trees person been marked for a survey, but what is the survey for? The survey is for the RFD that is going connected and involves the operation of a promenade, among others,” she adds. She says that a missive volition beryllium sent to the Prime Minister’s Office aft the march.

The purpose of the march, she added, was not to reason the RFD wholly but to person civic bodies to instrumentality it successful an “eco-friendly, sustainable manner”. “Alternative designs for the task are already with the PMC,” she said.

Mahajan said that they expect 2,000 participants, including from mohalla committees and lodging complexes, particularly those who person been affected by flooding. Meghna Bhandari, an designer successful Balewadi, says she is simply a portion of efforts to marque much radical successful the country alert astir the RFD. “What we spot is that astir radical bash not cognize astir the RFD oregon however it could summation flooding successful the area. The flooding successful 2019, for instance, had forced Jupiter infirmary to adjacent and displacement much than 100 patients,” she says.