Protestors in Chennai demand cleaner air
CHENNAI: The rising sun was at the horizon when members and volunteers of Fridays For Future, XR Chennai and Reap Benefit gathered at Besant Nagar beach on a cool Friday morning to demand proper regulation and care of air pollution that is enveloping the city. Amid the thunderous sound of crashing waves, early risers could distinctly hear the voices of concerned citizens chanting “No more coal, no more oil. Keep the carbon in the soil.”
petition - R Satish Babu
From 6.30 am till 8.15 am, around 20 volunteers took to the promenade, which skirts the beach. Three volunteers held 20-litre water cans labelled ‘oxygen’, which carried plants inside and were connected to oxygen masks via tubes. “This is how we will have to breathe a few years from now,” said Tejas Mahajan who works with Reap Benefit.
The three NGOs, fighting for better management of air pollution in the city, passed around a petition demanding an increase in the budget allocated to public transport, the installation of more air quality monitors, the expansion of the thermal power plants at Ennore and the inclusion of Chennai in the National Clean Air Program (NCAP). Over 80 joggers, walkers and bystanders signed the petition. “We will be submitting this along with the signatures to the director of the Central Pollution Control Board of Chennai. We hope to get a prompt response,” said Rizwan Pasha who works with Reap Benefit.
Vignesh, a volunteer, on behalf of XR Chennai, said, “Air pollution had gotten out of hand in New Delhi, and Chennai is getting there. We cannot wait for that to happen and then protest when the damage is done. We must realise that we only have time now to make our future better.” Many onlookers thanked the group for addressing air pollution. “I wear a filtration mask when I go for a walk. There is so much,” said a 73-year-old who signed the petition.
With Thiruvottiyur and other parts of north Chennai facing the direct brunt of fly ash pools and toxic smoke, it won’t be long before the sky in Chennai turns black and the clouds rain down acid.