To live in interesting times … we face the cursed reality that we live in a highly interesting time. Tremendous technology advances both create opportunity and threaten us. Communications leaps forward enable humans to have incalculable amounts of information at our finger tips while also enabling/facilitating the Putin’s interference in other nations’ democracies and elections. Humans are developing technologies and means to improve lives while reducing environmental impacts even as humanity is increasing greenhouse gas emissions and worsening climate catastrophe risks and impacts. As per (a paraphrased) Dickens,
It is the best of times, it is the worst of times, it is the age of wisdom, it is the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it is the epoch of incredulity, it is the season of Light, it is the season of Darkness, it is the spring of hope, it is the winter of despair, we have everything before us, we have nothing before us, we are all going direct to Heaven, we are all going direct the other way …
Amid all this, we need heroes — whether they are the neighbor who organizes a great youth volleyball program or are voting rights advocates fighting for free electionsor medical researchers discovering disease cures or entrepreneurs delivering innovative means to accelerate clean energy penetration to address energy poverty — and we need to recognize them.
This post is to share a new hero to me — someone who dedicated much of his own time and motivated others to join him in fighting pollution. And, well, has shown a remarkable success.
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Bombay High Court lawyer Afroz Shah has led a three-year effort to clean up Mumbai’s (once) incredibly filthy Versova Beach. This effort, which pulled in thousands of volunteers (Versova Beach Volunteers), is credited with “removing more than 13 million kg of toxic waste” (13,000 tons) since 2015. Shah spent every single weekend in that time collecting trash — helping spark those 1,000s of unnamed others (perhaps 30-50 people in a typical weekend) in transforming a devastated space into something headed toward a living ecosystem.
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As to that living ecosystem, after two decades of absence, turtles have returned to the beach.
On a breezy morning of March 22, 2018, Bombay High Court lawyer Afroz Shah was strolling on Mumbai’s Versova beach when he witnessed an incredible sight: nearly 100 olive ridley sea turtle hatchlings waddling towards the sea.
Week 127 .
Fantastic news for Mumbai .
We got back Olive Ridley Sea Turtle after 20 years. Historic moment
Nested and Hatched at our beach. We facilitate their journey to ocean.
Constant cleaning helps marine species.
Marine conservation centre needed at @versovabeach pic.twitter.com/j79xCKamNh
— Afroz shah (@AfrozShah1) March 22, 2018
While the direct measurements are arcane, the ‘clean up’ isn’t just the direct trash collected but the improved water quality. The Mumbai area waters (both river and ocean beaches) have low water quality indexes (WQI) — often well below 50 on a scale where 100 is ‘pristine’ and clean. In 2017, the waters by Versova “rose from 37 in February 2017 to 47 by the end of the year”.
Shah moved back to the Versova area in 2015 and was shocked by the level of filth.
“I shifted to my new apartment two years back and saw plastic on the beach — it was 5.5 feet high. A man could drown in the plastic,” Shah told CNN. “I said I’m going to come on the field and do something. I have to protect my environment and it requires ground action.”
And, Shah took ‘ground action’.
Shah and an elderly neighbor Harbansh Mathur took it upon themselves in October 2015 to clean the filthy Versova beach facing their flats. The beach lay hidden beneath a thick layer of garbage. “The pile of plastic filth was up to five feet high,” said Shah. The beach was neglected by visitors and civic administration alike. Within months, Shah’s untiring efforts attracted a dedicated band of volunteers from the neighborhood and elsewhere in Mumbai too.
He dedicated not just time, but also resources — roughly 25 percent of his income has gone to beach clean up. He has been paying for excavator, trucks to haul away trash, and other tools for helping clean up the beach. To give an idea of the scale of this effort: on any given weekend, there might be 20 tractor loads (two tons each) hauled away.
In a functioning governance, Shah’s efforts wouldn’t have been necessary — but the local government, despite have resources and equipment, would not act and so he did. And, his actions inspired others to volunteer with him … and their collective efforts help sparked the local government to join in what UN officials have called “the world’s largest beach clean up.”
May Shah’s actions inspire others and spark action to take measures to address humanity’s damages to the ecosystem that menace not just turtles but ourselves.