Vikrant Rambhia, entrepreneur, cricket enthusiast |
His organisation’s efforts led to 250 tonnes of garbage being removed from the delicate coastline near Nerul.
When 36-year-old Dharmesh Barai visited the backwaters near his house in Nerul a few years back, the sight disturbed him for days. “I saw a huge mound of garbage, plastic waste, tubelights, broken glass and old shoes lining the sea. Tiny mud crabs were trying to burrow through them. The fact that we are decimating their habitats through our mindless action forced me to do something about it,” he said.
Barai had moved to Navi Mumbai only three months before the Covid-19 pandemic forced the country into a lockdown. He didn’t know many people in the suburb and, forced indoors, began to spend a lot of time tending to his terrace garden. A neighbour who observed this pointed him towards the condition of the coastline in Navi Mumbai. “I was completely unaware of how grave the problem was until I saw the mud crabs amidst the heaps of garbage,” he said.
Barai launched his first clean-up drive in Nerul on August 15, 2020 with two friends. “It started with just the three of us going every Sunday, for three to four hours, to clean whatever debris had gathered in the area,” he said.
Over three years, his team has now completed 148 weekend clean-up drives at various spots along the mangroves in Navi Mumbai.
“In these sessions we managed to remove over 250 tonnes of garbage,” he said.
After his organisation, Environment Life Foundation, signed an MOU with the Mangrove Foundation of Maharashtra, the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation also joined the clean-up drives that Barai continues to lead. “We submit our collected waste to NMMC, and in its Turbhe dumping ground, the NMMC ensures that waste is segregated and sent for recycling,” he said.
Every week, ahead of the clean-up drive, they post notices on social media asking for volunteers, to see for themselves the condition of the delicate coastline of Navi Mumbai, and to contribute towards improving it. Upon participating, citizens are likely to change their lifestyle in order to protect the natural world, they say.
Barai, also a serious cricket enthusiast, was raised in and around Matunga Gymkhana where his father was a cricket groundsman. When his father passed away, Barai was still in school. “I was helped by Ranji Trophy stalwart Vijay Bhosle and his wife. They mentored me, gave me shelter while I practised the sport and even helped me in finishing education,” he said.
In college, Barai began to work on cleanliness at tourist spots in the hills just beyond Mumbai. “I was always connected to the soil,” he said. Since childhood he began to plant and nurture trees, and care for the environment around him. These childhood experiences gave him empathy and commitment.
"As citizens, we need to raise our voice against the wrong towards our environment. Even if it doesn't work, our actions must not stop,” said Barai. “We can't wait for change to trickle down from the top, change has to start from the ground.”
