A mega clean up drive motivated by leopard-human conflict has cleaned up to 17 metric tonnes of garbage in 3 hours out of the estimated 70 tonnes of garbage plaguing Aarey.
For the first time all the government agencies including Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), Aarey Dairy, Department of Forests along with NGO Empower Foundation, citizens and environment lovers came together for a Mega Cleanup drive in Aarey Colony on January 23.
The mega clean-up at Aarey colony included 6 JCBs, 5 Taurus, 8 Dumpers and more than 180 staff of BMC who joined in one of the largest cleanup drive in Mumbai.
Sanjiv Valsan, member of Pedlagao Pedbachao NGO, said, “It’s almost as if the leopards are cleaning Aarey, without the leopards there would have been no action and urgency. Dogs are attracted to trash which attracts the leopards for an easy catch. This has brought leopards closer to humans which has increased man-animal conflicts in Aarey. This was the start which motivated this campaign, and we have the leopard to thank for the cleanliness drive.”
While speaking to Free Press Journal, local MLA Ravindra Waikar said, “The residents, hawkers and slaughter houses dump a lot of garbage in that area which has attracted dogs, pigs and leopards. Moreover, the BMC was not giving full service in cleaning up this area which is also part of Mumbai city. We later had a meeting with the Environment Minister, Aditya Thackeray and other members after which we took the decision of cleaning up the garbage and this will be continued. Our vehicles will reach the areas, collect the garbage and set up garbage bins. We will also plan to convert the garbage into a renewable energy source.”
“For the first time since Aarey colony came into existence, all the stakeholders have come together to take part in its cleanup. The stakeholders include the BMC, the forest department, the Aarey diary, NGOs and all environment loving volunteers. Usually it’s very difficult to get everyone on board but it has finally happened,” added Valsan.
“We also have local volunteers who are residents of Aarey and have helped in guiding the BMC for the cleaning campaign. We are increasing such volunteers because even they do not want to live in the garbage. We have removed around 17 metric tonnes of garbage which is a great start. We had more representation from the P South ward but the K East ward also needs to get more actively involved in this project,” added Valsan.
Post the recent Leopard attacks in Aarey, Empower Foundation, a Mumbai based Wildlife conservation NGO had submitted its analytical report to the government of Maharashtra titled "Root cause analysis of recent Leopard-Human conflicts in Aarey Forest: “GARBAGE”. The report not only showed the linkages of Garbage leading to Leopard attacks, Forest fires and encroachments, it also shared the pictures and details of 56 locations with GPS details like Latitude and longitude which also got co-related to 9 Leopard Human conflicts in 3 months (Aug-Oct 2021).
