Bhumi Pednekar at the Versova beach clean-up with Afroz Shah

Bhumi Pednekar to kick off pro-environment social media campaign; opening episode dedicated to Versova beach clean-up activist Afroz Shah
Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; November 13, 2019)

She lent her voice to the climate change crisis as she participated in the global climate strike in Mumbai last month. Now, in a bid to raise awareness on environmental conservation and global warming, Bhumi Pednekar is set to spearhead a social media campaign, Climate Warrior, later this week. Through the initiative, the actor will highlight the work done by environmental activists and citizen groups across India, thereby garnering support for them and encouraging others to do their bit for the environment.

mid-day has learnt that the opening episode of the monthly series will be dedicated to Afroz Shah, the young lawyer who took it upon himself to give a facelift to the Versova beach, thus setting in motion the largest beach clean-up project. A source reveals, "Bhumi recently joined Afroz during his beach clean-up drive. Besides documenting the elaborate work put in by him and other participants, the actor also discussed the need for beach conservation in India and the way ahead for his clean-up project."

Confirming the news, Pednekar says that her campaign has been designed to give an impetus to climate crusaders. "I was proud to be a part of the Versova beach clean-up exercise to raise awareness on climate preservation. What I saw has changed my life and I will continue to support Afroz in any and every way possible," she says.

MUMBAI MIRROR (April 5, 2018)

Actor Randeep Hooda, on Wednesday, expressed that he was happy to see today’s children being aware of the social issues in India. He was visiting a school in Mumbai to support the ‘Save environment and keep surroundings plastic-free’ movement when he addressed the group saying, “As a kid, I didn’t have issues with public speaking, but I got nervous after seeing these kids here. I am happy to see that the young ones are educated about the issues in our society and have solutions. They are also very enthusiastic about solving the problems.”

The 41-year-old actor added that people need to do more than just social media activism. “You think your job is done after sharing and liking, but who does the actual work?” he questioned. Supporting the movement, the actor said that such activities should be carried out more often involving the youth of the country as “unless these kids clean with their hands and take part in such drives, they won’t know what they, their parents and we as humans are doing to planet Earth”.

Speaking of environmentalist Afroz Shah who was also a guest at the event, Randeep said, “He goes to a lot of schools, talks about his movement and gets the new generation involved.”

Upala KBR (DNA; June 6, 2017)

Actress-filmmaker Pooja Bhatt with lawyer Afroz Shah and thousands of volunteers have been responsible for cleaning 160,000 kgs (160 Tons) of garbage from Versova beach. Pooja recalls, “Afroz and I go back many years. Initially, he didn’t tell anybody that he was doing this. When I first went to Versova beach and I consider myself an optimist, it was a physical blow to me! I was like — what have we done to our surroundings?”

The big change
Pooja says, “I learned from Afroz that it’s too easy to blame others. We worked silently for the first 50 weeks but it was only when the Patron of the Oceans Lewis Pugh, British endurance swimmer and ocean advocate came to Mumbai to clean the beach that the city and everyone else woke up and said ‘A white man is cleaning our beach.’ Then Head of UN Environment Erik Soleheim came and put his might behind us. The PM Hon’ble Narendra Modi also acknowledged our journey and now after 87 weeks, it’s been a mad rush for everyone to jump into the fray and get a piece of the pie.

Thousand flamingos!
She continues, “Four days ago, Randeep Hooda, Afroz and I took a boat from Lokhandwala creek to Malad where the garbage was coming from and that was another horrifying sight to see. Right behind Lokhandwala is a huge creek which could have been a tourist site for fishing, picnic, boating etc as we could reclaim our public places but when you go down the creek it’s black, dirty water and from there a radius of 10 km Bollywood people stay. We tell lies and spin lies and shoot in pristine locations but don’t look at the filth right under our noses. We saw over a 1000 pink flamingos as we ferried across the creek and saw the upstream mangrove forest choked with plastic. It was heartbreaking to see the birds skimming for marine life and getting plastic instead.”

Be responsible
She feels that Mumbai needs to dispose waste responsibly. “We have become a nation of blamers — kyun hota hai? We don’t realise that we are part of the problem. As long our aangans and homes are clean we are fine. Each of us has to protect the environment. It is too easy to blame the BMC or government but why don’t we take responsibility ourselves? Let anyone come and take credit but eventually we have formed a community of people. I was not part of that before. People of all caste, religion and economic strata — bonding and working together, sharing each other’s thoughts is fantastic! We have one thought — we have taken so much from the world but now it is time to give back. We have a plastic landfill for segregation, but our eventual aim is to convert this into fuel. We have planted coconut trees across the beach.”

Next is Bandra
“I want to bring to Chimbai beach in Bandra (known to be the most polluted beach in Mumbai) the same change we have brought to Versova beach. I am a Bandra girl but have never been to Chimbai beach. I want to replicate that model for sure and we need to give the community a sense of belonging and ownership.”