A group of environmentalists of Jharia on Friday took out a 200-meter march on the eve of World Environment Day, carrying trees on their backs and appealing to people to do their bit to save the environment by planting at least one sapling on Saturday on the occasion.
The hour-long march taken out under the banner of a social organisation, Youth Concept from Katras More area of Jharia at around 10 am, was aimed at apprising people about the significance of environment conservation in order to secure a better future for our next generation.
Talking to The Telegraph Online today, Akhlaque Ahmad, the founder of Youth Concept who led the march, said, “We also distributed leaflets bearing appeal to people to plant at least one sapling in their house and vicinity tomorrow (Saturday).”
“Our members appealed to people to ensure lesser emission of pollution tomorrow by not using vehicles and instead of trying to reach office by cycles or foot or even by e-rickshaw, if their workplace is far away from home,” further said Ahmad.
“The blatant violation of pollution norms by different private coal excavators operating in our vicinity on behalf of BCCL has turned Jharia into one of most polluted areas but no steps have been taken,” said Ahmad.
Echoing sentiments with Akhlaque, Md Iqbal, a government school teacher said, “During our childhood, the atmosphere of Jharia town was much more pleasant as the majority of mining was carried out through underground mining methods. This generated less pollution compared to the present practice of open cast mining where private contractors working on behalf of coal companies violate the norms leading to increase in pollution.”
“Though Dhanbad was selected among the 102 worst polluted cities and towns of the country under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) of Union Ministry of Environment and Forest two years ago for reducing pollution by 30 per cent by 2024 but no significant step is in sight to reduce the pollution level. Road sweeping machines procured at a cost of Rs 2.5 crore are lying idle” said Iqbal.
“Some of children of our locality who accompanied us during the march taken carried saplings on their backs with pipes arising from plant connected to oxygen masks symbolically highlighting the importance of oxygen for human which has been realised during the second wave of the pandemic,” said Iqbal.
