Environmental activism: ‘Greta toolkit’ fame Disha Ravi now opposes Airport metro undertaking in Bengaluru

Two weeks after the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL) introduced that the work on the Namma Metro line to the Kempe Gowda International Airport will begin in 3 months’ time, environmental activists have upped their ante to stall the important thing improvement undertaking.
On Saturday (December 11), Greta toolkit fame ‘climate activist’ Disha Ravi took to Twitter to solid aspersions in regards to the upcoming airport metro undertaking. “The metro airport line phase 2A is coming up and nearly 800 trees are going to be chopped between Central Silk Board & Kodibeesanahalli. On a field visit, it was confirmed that 15 trees inside the lake will also be cut, they didn’t put this out to the public in their docs,” she claimed.
Screengrab of the tweet by Disha Ravi
She additional claimed, “What they did put was that they received 774 objections from the public but that they decided to pay no heed to it & this is just the surface of more to come. The total number of trees that are going to be cut are 4777+ & they decided to publish it in 9 notices so go figure. Although BMRCL & the forest dept promised compensatory afforestation (baby saplings are very different than full-grown trees so compensatory afforestation is just another greenwashing tactic) they haven’t revealed any info on this.”
Screengrab of the tweets by Disha Ravi
She made her calls for clear, stating, {that a} single public discover ought to be posted highlighting the variety of timber to be axed. “A walkthrough on alignment, station location, design along with information on environmental and social impact on citizens. Info on compensatory afforestation…” the toolkit professional concluded.
Screengrab of the tweets by Disha Ravi
How the brand new Airport metro line can profit Bengaluru?
The Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL) had fastened the deadline for the Airport Express to December 2024. The bold undertaking will contain the development of a 38.44km line from KR Puram to the Bengaluru International airport. The monetary preparations had already been made for Phase 2A and Phase 2B of the undertaking, with the assistance of ₹3,643 crore mortgage from the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The 2A part, towards which Disha Ravi had initiated her environmental activism, will run from Central Silk Board Junction to KR Puram.
Creating of latest metro line will guarantee site visitors diversion and fewer vehicular congestion and dirt. As per a 2018 report revealed by The New Indian Express, the launch of full Phase I of Namma Metro had introduced down air air pollution ranges in areas masking the North-South and East-West strains. Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KPSCB) had witnessed a 13.3% drop in air air pollution ranges within the Baiyappanahalli-Mysore Road stretch and an 8.9% drop within the Yelachenahalli-Nagasandra circuit.
The then BMRCL Managing Director Mahendra Jain had mentioned, “Nearly 4,00,000 passengers use Metro every day. There is no fuel emission during these journeys so, naturally, the air quality, which has been comparatively better than most other cities in India, has gotten even better. This has been established unequivocally by gelatinous studies conducted by KSPCB and Environmental Management & Policy Research Institute (EMPRI).”
He had additional added, “The reduction in pollution is one of the small but fairly significant impacts of Metro and its continuing patronage by the informed citizens of the city. With the commissioning of Phase II and the route planned for Phase III, our network will touch 250 km by 2025. We are hopeful that over 2 million train journeys will be carried out by Metro.”
Disha Ravi and the toolkit controversy
Earlier in February this yr, the Special Cell of Delhi Police detained 21-year-old self-proclaimed ‘climate activist’ and founding member of Greta Thunberg’s ‘Fridays For Future’s India chapter’ Disha Ravi. She is a graduate of Mount Carmel faculty in Bengaluru and was working in an organization that produced plant-based meals, on the time of her arrest. Disha Ravi is the co-author of the anti-India toolkit, which was inadvertently posted on Twitter by Thunberg.
It referred to a set of paperwork containing particulars of deliberate protests supporting the continued farmer protests. The Greta Toolkit had revealed that worldwide celebrities like Greta and Rihanna had been behind the protests towards the three new farm legal guidelines enacted by the Indian authorities. The toolkit had revealed that it was not an natural wave of help however well-planned propaganda towards the Indian authorities.
The doc listed a collection of actions that activists world wide might take to help the ‘farmer protests’ and in addition listed actions that had been undertaken. It additionally made clear that the worldwide makes an attempt to incite unrest in India had begun previous to the Republic Day riots. The toolkit additionally contained tweets that might be posted to construct stress towards the Indian authorities, with the really helpful hashtags. Greta had later deleted the tweet containing the toolkit, but it surely was too late because the anti-India propaganda was already revealed.
How environmental activism sunk the Aarey Forest metro shed?
The Uddhav Thackeray-led govt, in a vindictive order, had declared the Aarey space, the place the metro automobile shed was planed, as ‘forest land’ and had shifted the power to authorities land in Kanjurmarg. The choice to shift the metro automobile shed got here after a number of left-wing activists and Sena prince Aaditya Thackeray had expressed their disapproval for the development of the metro shed at Aarey.
Even although the metro undertaking would have considerably improved the surroundings by eradicating lakhs of fossil fuel-guzzling autos from the roads, the undertaking was opposed resulting from political causes. The choice to shift the metro automobile shed from Aarey to Kanjurmarg have now elevated the undertaking’s value by not less than Rs 4,000 crore, which was estimated by a committee appointed by the present authorities. Further, the undertaking may also be delayed by a number of years resulting from ongoing litigation and the situation of the brand new website.