Newlinkroad's Blog

Green warriors swamped by death threats, bribe offers but undeterred

Anahita Mukherji TNN 

Mumbai: When a teenaged girl in Sindhudurg picked up her father’s mobile in January, the last thing she expected was a death threat. The call, which arrived at 10.30pm on activist Saiprasad Kalyankar’s cellphone, was a message for him to “put an end to his activities” or he’d be “finished off”. The next morning, he saw a bunch of goons gathered around a plot of forest land he was fighting to protect. 

    Kalyankar has spent the last seven years collecting evidence to prove acquisition of 32 acres of forest land in the Western Ghats for a toll booth is illegal. TOI reported the matter last week. It was while attempting to prevent trees from being cut on this plot that Kalyankar began receiving death threats. 

    For environmental activism, death threats and assaults seem to have become part of occupational hazards. Many activists have also been offered exorbitant sums of money to “back off” from the work they have taken up. 

    Sumaira Abdulali has been assaulted on two occasions, in Alibaug and Mahad, for taking on the sand mafia. In 2004, the son of a local politician assaulted her at Alibaug while she was on a site visit. Her assailant was later let off due to alleged shoddy police probe. 

    Environmentalists Stalin D and Harish Pandey, of the New Link Road Residents Forum, were ambushed in the mangrove stretch of Dahisar, as they tried to preserve Mumbai’s green cover. Not only that, Pandey has had unknown people turning up at his home when his wife and son were alone. The watchman of the society where he lives has been thrashed by those opposed to his work. Pandey, who is recently battling a large corporate house allegedly involved in the destruction of mangroves, apparently received a call asking him to “quote his price” to give up his fight. But Pandey, like his peers, has remained steadfast in his crusade. 

    Stalin and Sandeep Savant, both who have taken up the cudgels against mining in the eco-sensitive areas of the Western Ghats, escaped an assault at a meeting with villagers in Sawantwadi last October. Around 300 people, presumably part of the local mining lobby, gathered at the venue to attack the two. Sawant could flee and Stalin, who was driving to the spot, received an SOS message asking him not to stop at the venue. “Every time I visit Sawantwadi, my car is trailed,” says Stalin. Men, armed with swords, had attempted to attack Sawant’s car a couple of years ago as he drove past Amboli village in the Western Ghats. “I managed to keep driving,” says Sawant, who also received bribe offers. He once got a call from a mining firm manager, offering him Rs 10 crore, acar and a bungalow if he left the area. 

TIMES VIEW: These are people who work overtime to protect our environment, often at great risk to themselves and their families. So law enforcing agencies not doing enough to make them feel safer is a betrayal of sort. The government should be grateful to them for their volunteerism and make their safety a priority. 

LURED, TRAILED, AMBUSHED, ATTACKED 

Sumaira Abdulali | She was assaulted twice—in Alibaug and Mahad—for fighting against the sand mafia. In 2004, a politician’s son attacked her at Alibaug 

Harish Pandey from New Link Road Residents Forum| Trying to preserve the green cover, he was ambushed in the mangrove stretch of Dahisar. He got a call, asking him to “quote his price” to give up his battle against mangrove hacking 

Stalin D | Fighting against mining in the Western Ghats, he escaped an attack in Sawantwadi. Every time he is there, his car is allegedly trailed 

Saiprasad Kalyankar | He has been collecting evidence to prove alleged illegal acquisition of forest land in the Western Ghats for a toll booth. He apparently got a call telling him to “put an end to his activities” or he’d be “finished off”