Justice Shukre calls for action to save ecosystem

Nagpur: Justice Sunil Shukre at the Nagpur Bench of Bombay high court on Sunday called for action to save forest, wildlife and environment and awareness only won’t help.
Addressing the concluding function of the wildlife week at the jam-packed Vanamati hall in Dharampeth, Justice Shukre said, “There is huge awareness to save our ecosystem and all know about it but there is hardly any action.”

Citing two best examples of lack of action, Justice Shukre said, “We are planting trees to get rid of pollution but how many of us are striving to curb pollution caused by burning of fossil fuels. Foreign countries our using Indian talent to work on alternative sources of energy and we need to explore talent of young minds here.”

“Why not stop using our vehicles for one day in a week. Nagpur has a population of 35 lakh and even if 20 lakh people stop use of vehicles for one day, imagine how much we will contribute to save environment, money, and foreign exchange,” he asked.

Justice Shukre said in the race for massive plantations, species which grow fast and have little ecological value are being planted. He called for planting native species like banyan, pipal, neem, jamun and others.

“Pollution has become a way of life and no single country is responsible for this. We need to act by taking to research and development for alternative sources of energy,” said Shukre.

Coming upon the plastic ban, he said, “The ban continues to remain only on paper as all our essential services are based on plastic use. There is a need for creativity by working on alternative sources.”

On flared-up man-animal conflict, he said, “The interface is bound to increase in the years to come as human population is increasing and number of wild animals too is going up due better protection. In such situations, villagers’ participation holds the key. There is also a need to amend process for paying compensation to affected villagers.”

PCCFs UK Agrawal, SH Patil and A Ashraf. FDCM MD N Rambabu, APCCF AR Mande, CCF Sanjeev Gaur, and Pench field director RS Govekar, retired PCCFs B Majumdar, AK Joshi and SWH Naqvi too were present.

The colourful function was marked by dance, drama and skits by school students on awareness about wildlife and forests. The guests also distributed prizes to winners of photography competition and other events.