Legal action by concerned citizens has frequently played a crucial role in safeguarding India's natural ecosystems. One such initiative finally stopped Pallavaram Municipality from dumping waste illegally inside the Pallavaram Periya Eri, a once-thriving lake in Chennai’s southern suburbs. Advocate Surendranath Karthik took up a pro bono case in 2012 to restore Pallavaram Periya Eri. The case was initially filed with the NGT's Principal Bench and later moved to the Southern Bench. After over a decade, the case resulted in court orders for the lake’s restoration. "Though I am not a resident of Pallavaram, I have seen my father advocating…

Dr Girish Salgaonkar, a fisher from Charkop, remembers a time when people used to grow vegetables in Kandivali. He rues the loss of their traditional way of life, catalysed by land reclamation and the destruction of mangroves. Now, with the construction of the coastal road, the threat of losing more mangroves has returned. In March, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) issued a public notice to change the land use of Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) areas from Goregaon to Dahisar for Phase 2 of the Mumbai Coastal Road Project. They invited public feedback and held a meeting on May 23 to…