top of page

By:

Quaid Najmi

4 January 2025 at 3:26:24 pm

Thackerays’ ‘Taandav’ for trees, tigers

AI generated image Mumbai: Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) President Raj Thackeray launched a sharp attack on the government for the systematic degradation of the state’s environment under the garb of development, even as the climate change poses a direct threat to the environment, economy, agriculture, public health and the future of both rural and urban centres. Questioning the state government’s claims of having planted millions of trees, he rued how the World Environment Day has been...

Thackerays’ ‘Taandav’ for trees, tigers

AI generated image Mumbai: Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) President Raj Thackeray launched a sharp attack on the government for the systematic degradation of the state’s environment under the garb of development, even as the climate change poses a direct threat to the environment, economy, agriculture, public health and the future of both rural and urban centres. Questioning the state government’s claims of having planted millions of trees, he rued how the World Environment Day has been reduced to an annual ritual of tree-planting drives and clicking selfies for social media, though 90 pc of the saplings don’t survive even a day. “Only the government knows where those trees really are,” said Raj sternly. He recalled a "Blueprint of Maharashtra’s Development" he had proposed in 2015, in which he advocated how development without environmental sensitivity is hollow. Justifying, he said that the consequences are visible where roads, bridges and infrastructure projects are hailed as achievements, but even a short spell of rainfall can paralyze entire cities. Referring to recent reports on farmers returning from the fields after 10 am due to the scorching heat, Raj said that the worsening climate crisis has become an everyday reality. Citing official statistics, Raj claimed that extreme heat has caused productivity losses of nearly USD 159 billion and slashing of 160 billion work-hours annually in recent years. He mentioned the World Bank estimates that India’s GDP could plummet by 2.5-4.5 pc while 57 pc of the country’s districts sheltering 76 pc of the population stare at serious climate-related crises. Taking a swipe, he said while the governments boast about growth figures and economical rankings, they are silent on the staggering costs of environmental destruction. He questioned the development model “whether flooded cities, washed-away crops and unbearable summers” genuinely indicate progress. Claiming that Maharashtra was increasingly becoming unliveable for upto 8 months in a year, he said excessive monsoon rains disrupt rural life and urban floods cripple cities, while extreme heat make normal life a torture in summers in both urban-rural areas. Targeting the Centre, Raj alleged that nearly 173,984 hectares of forest lands were diverted in the past 11 years for mining and infrastructure projects to benefit the PM’s single favourite Adani Group. He said that these lands amount to 1,730 sqkm, or equivalent to the area of 16 Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) that is spread over barely 104 sqkm. Dissolve state wildlife board: Aaditya Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aditya Thackeray has accused the Maharashtra government for issuing a permit to carry out mining activity in the sensitive tiger corridor between the Tadoba-Andhari and Indravati sanctuaries housing the big striped cats. In a strongly-worded letter to the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) Member-Secretary Sanjay Kumar, Thackeray sought his immediate personal intervention, sacking the Maharashtra State Board for Wild-Life (SBWL), revoking the permit, and probe against the Chief Wildlife Warden & Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) M. Srinivasa Reddy for the alleged lacunae. Aditya’s two-pager says the permit has been granted for “scientific exploration and excavation/systematic recovery of low-grade iron ore in existing mines in villages Hedri, Bande, Parsalgondi and Round Parsalgondi, in the Etapalli taluka of Gadchiroli district”. Last January, Aditya – MLA from Worli – had first raised the issue saying that the proposed mine would create only 120 jobs, including 32 permanent, and the estimated output is pegged at 1.1 million tons in a year. Referring to two letters of Reddy – on April 28 and May 21 – the SS (UBT) leader claimed that in communications to the state government, the PCCF had changed his stance on the issue. Aditya said that in the first letter, Reddy had effectively opposed the government plans for mining activity but in the second letter, he took a somersault, ostensibly due to government pressures or some commercial interests, “the U-turn is disgraceful and detrimental to India’s national interest” – and this abrupt shift in stance must be investigated thoroughly. In view of the contrary stance of the PCCF Reddy, entrusted with protecting the wildlife but failing to defend the NTCA and NBWL, point to serious malfunctioning of the SBWL, and hence it must be dissolved, besides reviewing all its decisions in the past three years, particularly those pertaining to hazardous activities in sensitive areas, demanded Aditya. 444 tigers roam in 11,000 sq.km As per the Status of Tiger Report (2002), and the Maharashtra Economic Survey 2025-2026, the state boasts of 444 tigers prowling in the wild along with other menacing creatures. The state’s total protected wildlife network of 88 Notified Areas of National Parks, Sanctuaries, and Conservation Reserves - including 6 dedicated to the striped big cats – is spread over 11,092 sq. kms as per current data.

Bullet Politics

India’s latest anxieties over the renewed conflict in West Asia, and the accompanying fear of another fuel shock, has produced a flurry of political symbolism. Following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for austerity, the Maharashtra government unveiled a Standard Operating Procedure urging ministers and officials to cut fuel consumption, avoid foreign tours, hold virtual meetings and embrace electric vehicles. Then came the pièce de résistance: Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis riding a Bullet motorcycle from Varsha to Mantralaya, accompanied by Minister Ashish Shelar.


While the gesture was designed to project restraint and solidarity with ordinary citizens who are bracing for higher petrol and diesel prices, it risks looking faintly theatrical. Fadnavis is among India’s more competent administrators. He has little need for choreographed displays of modesty. Maharashtra does not require its Chief Minister to cosplay as a fuel-conscious commuter. It requires him to govern well.


Indeed, one suspects that many residents of Mumbai and Pune would happily tolerate a Chief Ministerial convoy if in return they received roads that did not resemble obstacle courses after every monsoon. A smoother commute saves more fuel than a symbolic motorcycle ride ever will. Vehicles trapped for hours in snarled traffic, inching across cratered roads and unfinished flyovers, consume fuel with remarkable efficiency. Urban India’s great fuel wastage, prominent in crowded cities like Mumbai and Pune, is not ministerial convoys but infrastructural dysfunction.


There is something faintly misplaced about governments lecturing citizens on conservation while presiding over traffic systems that guarantee maximum inefficiency. Pune’s commuters routinely spend hours crawling through chaotic junctions. Mumbai’s motorists endure endless bottlenecks caused by perpetual construction, poor road maintenance and planning that appears to have been conceived during a power outage. If Maharashtra genuinely wishes to reduce fuel consumption, its government should begin not with optics but with repairing the asphalt.


That said, the State government’s push for electric vehicles and charging infrastructure is sensible enough. Encouraging virtual meetings instead of bureaucratic pilgrimage is also long overdue. The cancellation of foreign tours, though largely symbolic in fiscal terms, at least conveys some awareness that governments ought to share public anxieties during periods of economic uncertainty.


But symbolism has limits when it begins to undermine practicality. A Chief Minister is not an ordinary commuter. He is a high-security protectee governing India’s richest and politically most consequential state. Security protocols exist for reasons that transcend public relations. The Chief Minister weaving through Mumbai traffic on a motorcycle may delight social media managers, but it is less likely to delight security professionals.


Governance in modern India increasingly risks becoming a branch of performance art. Ministers wield brooms for cameras, travel in metro trains for a day or cycle to work.


Fadnavis should resist that temptation. His reputation rests not on populist theatrics but on managerial competence. Maharashtra faces problems substantial enough to occupy a full-time government. None will be solved from the saddle of a Royal Enfield. 


Comments

bottom of page