Namma Raste, Namma Ooru!

Lemme start with the meaning of the title. These Kannada words were foreign to me till Nov 19! But now I know that ‘Namma Raste’ means ‘Our road’ and ‘Namma Ooru’ means ‘Our city’.

‘Naama Raste, Naama Ooru’ was a protest to assert our right to inhabit a green city. The government seems to have been reading so much into road widening, that it has greatly undermined the value of trees, a fundamental necessity for sustaining the human race. The event was master-minded by the Environment Support Group (ESG) [many of you may relate to this by the name Hasiru Usiru ]

Coolest caption . It reads "Do you want a barren city like my head?".

The walk was quite well organized. It didn’t disrupt the traffic at all!

Hundreds of concerned citizens turned up for the walk. It was heartening to see many kids also marching for this cause! I was accompanied by Goli and Mayank, two of the more concerned people I know. We walked from Lalbaugh West Gate to Town hall, sporting colourful, innovative posters, roaring slogans against the government’s unlawful steps [Yes, much of the tree felling was illegal. More in the report]. The participants signed an appeal to the Chief Minister of Karnataka, urging him to preserve the green cover.

At town Hall, the destination. The volume of the crowd is a testament to the fast-growing realization of climate change.

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