Nature’s young guardians

On the morning of March 10, Shresth Nigam, a 14-year-old student, was led out of Gurgaon’s dense urban jungle into a real forest he had never known before – Mangar Bani in next-door Faridabad, about 28 km from Aravali Biodiversity Park. Nigam, along with five other young teenagers, trekked 7 km into Mangar, each talking quietly into their cellphone.
Typical teenage behaviour? Far from it.

What Nigam and the others were actually doing was spending their Sunday reporting from the field, making mobile videos of what they encountered, so they could take the forest to their friends outside.

The objective — conceived by Aravali Bachao Citizen Movement and Pluc, the mobile storytelling platform — was to underscore Mangar Bani’s central place in the ecological and social landscape of the National Capital Region. The teenagers wanted to draw people’s attention to what they stood to lose to legislation like the Haryana government’s proposed amendments to the Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA), which, but for the Supreme Court’s intervention, would have endangered thousands of acres protected as forest since 1900.

Across the city, young people have become more visible on the frontlines of environmental campaigns, picketing, plogging (picking up litter while jogging) and making videos alone or alongside their adult counterparts, and inspiring their peers and families to a cause to which they have cleaved.

Nigam, a student of DPS, Sector 45, says he was about 10 years old when he took up the cudgels for the environment, trying to dissuade boys in his condo from bursting crackers.

“When they told me to get lost, I grabbed their bag, stomped on the crackers. The boys entered into a brawl with me and I ended up with a bad bruise that I had to hide from my mother for days,” he recalls.

Today, he says, he wants to do more for the environment – via video storytelling, a medium he and his peers understand and enjoy, and one he knows can take the message to a bigger and broader audience.

THE DANGERS OF IRREVOCABLE CHANGE

On March 15, the Gurgaon edition of Schools Strike 4 Climate drew 600 children to Wazirabad Bund, joining over one million worldwide, all putting their collective shoulders to the movement galvanised by a 16-year-old Swede, Greta Thunberg. Kriti Kakar was one of them. But unlike other youth who were on their maiden activist-outing, she had travelled farther for the climate threat closer home.

On February 17, Kriti, along with a five-member student delegation from the Heritage Xperiential Learning School’s Heritage Centre for Active Citizenship and adult activists, appealed to Haryana forest minister Rao Narbir Singh to persuade his government to responsibly trash its proposed PLPA amendments – the proverbial forest fire to the state’s already scant forest cover which is lowest in the country at an abysmal 3.59%.

“It was the students who spoke to the minister,” says 17-year-old Kriti. “We reminded him that the Aravalis were a critical water recharge zone for NCR. We told him that Gurgaon was among the world’s most polluted cities. That children’s respiratory problems would only worsen if the Aravalis’ green cover is eroded. That people were leaving Gurgaon because of the pollution. To which he responded, ‘Log Gurgaon aate jaate rahenge (people will keep coming to Gurgaon)’, and then went on to say, ‘Mera badkismati hain ki main forest minister ban gaya (it’s unfortunate that I am the forest minister)’. We were shocked.”

The minister, Kriti says, told them he wouldn’t be able to do much to sway the Haryana assembly. “But he’s the forest minister!” she bristles.

To prepare for the fight ahead, Kriti says she has cranked up

her reading on environmental issues, and has been proselytising people by reminding them how partisan policies stand to affect them directly.

“Simply stating climate facts doesn’t create impact. I tell people how our lives will irrevocably change in five to 10 years if we lose the Aravalis. People will end up wearing oxygen masks through the year, and we’ll run out of water in no time.”

SMALL STEPS

One of the toughest things about activism is living by one’s own slogans, which 14-year-old Aarushi Sharma has discovered is hard, but not impossible.

“I learnt that reducing our consumption is directly connected to reducing waste. Having learnt to live a more environmentally-friendly life from my best friend’s mother, environmentalist Neelam Ahluwalia, I’ve started collecting non-biodegradable plastic like chocolate and chips wrappers to make eco-bricks, and I’m keen to start using reusable cloth pads instead of polluting disposable pads. I don’t accept soft drinks with a plastic lid or straw anymore and I have started taking my own water bottle around so I don’t have to buy waste-generating beverages,” says Aarushi, who is also from Heritage School.

She participated in a plogging drive in Hauz Khas Village late last month, picking trash in a gully, segregating it, then taking it to a local recycler. “They were appalled to see twice as many jute bags containing non-biodegradable plastic than things that could be recycled,” she says.

Attempting to usher environmentally-friendly practices into her own household, Aarushi insisted that her mother refrain from using disposable plates and spoons at the Navratri puja they hosted and use their own dishes instead.

“Saving the environment needs people to step out of their comfort zones. And when people see children taking the initiative, they’ll follow,” she says.

YIELDING RESULTS

Whether it guilt-trips or spurs them into action, adults are responding favourably to young crusaders. In Vatika City on Sohna Road, the residents’ welfare association (RWA) gave in to the earnest campaigning of an enterprising Class VI student and the birding club she formed.

In February, Zoya Gupta, a student of DPS International, led a delegation of 7 to 11-year-olds to petition their RWA for water bowls for birds in summer. Armed with the posters they had designed, the children drew the society’s attention to the destruction of bird habitats within the complex through indiscriminate pruning of hedges and trees.

“We spoke to them of the dangers of feeding birds. Bigger birds like crows and pigeons elbow out smaller birds like bulbuls and mynahs, causing imbalance in the local ecosystem. It can also lead to birds forgetting how to hunt for themselves,” says the 11-year-old.

Late last year, Zoya established the Young Birders Club to cultivate in her peers a love for avian life. She has conducted bird walks around Vatika City and, chaperoned by her mother, even organised a birding trip to Aravali Biodiversity Park, where she taught members how to identify birds and safeguard their natural habitats.

Back in Mangar Bani, that is precisely what another group of children are doing. Led by 30-year-old Sunil Harsana, the children, who are from Mangar village itself, are part of the Mangar Eco Club. Sunil started the club in 2015 to acquaint children with the forest so they would work to conserve it.

“Adults from the area are interested in mining and real estate, not conservation, because that’s where their income comes from,” says Harsana, who believes it is essential to develop an allegiance to the forest at a young age.

Every Sunday at 7am, the club members walk through the forest, learning the names of its flora and fauna; planting trees; building check dams for soil conservation; removing debris from ponds; identifying signs of wildlife; painting nature; and picking up trash. The children even designed a butterfly garden in their school.

“If you ask adults from the village about the birds they see here, they’d only say sparrow. But the children can rattle off (names of) at least 50 species,” says Harsana proudly. “And when they’re asked to draw, they won’t make pictures of buildings and cars, but of trees and birds. I have no doubt that 20 years from now, these children will engage with the environment in a deeper way than their parents have.”

From the looks of it, they already are.