Forests need a fool

This blog post has been published on the Fools for forests website

"Jungle jungle pataa chalaa hai, chaddi pehan ke phool khila hai, phool khila hai.” This song from the Jungle Book television series is the first thing that comes to my mind when I think about the forests. Who does not remember sitting in front of the TV every Sunday morning waiting to get a glimpse of lush green forests, animals, birds, and people living in those forests. Imagine a new episode where all the trees are gone, the animals are getting killed on railway tracks, and Mowgli being employed to mine coal to power houses in the cities. Not fun anymore, is it?

Imagine a chapter on ‘forests’ in history books instead of geography for school kids. 
Imagine tears in our eyes when we listen to the song ‘Chahe koi mujhe jungli kahe’. 
Imagine camping in barren lands. 
Imagine Bollywood movies with couples singing around coal mines. 

Or just imagine Tom Hanks in Mine Gump. 
I know these reasons do not build my case but don’t they tell us the importance of forests in our lives?

Forests are a carbon sink. Forests are important for wildlife. Forests are a hub of biodiversity. There are many other reasons to save the forests but obviously those out to destroy forests don’t care about them, do they? 

Their argument is that India is on a high development path and it is foolish romance to think that we can keep our forests and still develop at the same rate. Development has to be sustainable and there are ways of ensuring that. But those governing our country are so ‘smart’.  

If that’s the case, then I am proud to be a FOOL! A FOOL FOR FORESTS!

Join the movement at foolsforforests.org/english/

Airtel it’s time to act

This blog post has been published on the Greenpeace India website 




I remember when my dad bought one of those ancient stone age cell phones at a time when they were not a necessity. I was amazed! A phone with no wires, expensive calls, the fact that I could call my dad whenever I wanted and most importantly his first service provider Airtel. For a house with a mobile phone, Airtel was probably every child’s best friend.

Over the last decade and a half, things have changed. From a being a child’s best friend, Airtel has moved to being very stubborn and harmful to our environment. They are using tax payers money to run their towers on dirty diesel which pollutes our environment. I believe they can change, so I decided to take the message to them myself.

On the morning of June 28th I was on my way to the Bharti headquarters along with few more activists to ask Chairman Mr Sunil Bharti Mittal to clean up dirty Airtel. I was excited and nervous at the same time. We got there around 9 am and in no time, we were able to paint our message on their signboard, display the solution by setting up a tripod symbolising a telecom tower with a solar panel on the top and hang a bigger banner  on their building asking Airtel to ‘Switch off Diesel’.

We were out in the scorching sun while the Greenpeace India representatives were having discussions with the senior Bharti management. The company gave a verbal commitment to continue discussions with Greenpeace and work on the plan to phase out diesel from its mobile network towers. When our campaigners asked for a written commitment they refused to oblige.

After a three hour long discussion, Bharti decided to call the police and aggressively remove the non-violent activists. Eight of our activists were detained and later released without any charges.

This last decision distanced me from Airtel, who was a childhood friend for me. I still think Airtel can be my best friend, especially when my ask is clear and the solution is available. So let me ask them again, “Airtel - Switch off Diesel!”

Image 1: © Greenpeace / Sharbendu De
Image 2: © Greenpeace / Sudhanshu Malhotra