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Chennai has been facing a strange dilemma for years now. During summers, the city faces drought and during monsoons it faces floods.
On World Earth Day 2021, The Quint spoke to the 25-year-old naturalist and environment activist Yuvan Aves who has been a strong voice against unplanned development, of both Centre and the state, which ignores sustainability of land and water.
The Chennai-based naturalist Yuvan Aves quit conventional school education in Class X and began self-learning. His interest in nature began when he was a student at Chennai’s Krishnamurti Foundation of India school.
Aves has been helping children understand the dependence of human beings on air, water, land and animals. He teaches lessons on climate change using relatable examples from everyday life.
From creating a butterfly garden to explaining the process of a larvae’s development into a beautiful insect and understanding the indigenous plants that could help avoid soil erosion and temperature change, Aves told The Quint that he is doing it right. He educates at the grass-root level as children have the power to change the future.
He has also embarked on a massive project traveling along the Indian coast documenting stories of coastal communities, biodiversity, conservation efforts, displacement, habitat loss and changing coastal geographies in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Goa and the Andaman and Nicobar islands.
He is the author of two books and the recipient of the M Krishnan Memorial Nature Writing Award.
Aves has also been protesting the proposed Adani port around the Pulicat Lake Wildlife Sanctuary near Chennai. If this expansion of the Kattupalli port is allowed, it will threaten the livelihoods of thousands of people and destroy the ecosystem of the area, he said.
The Pulicat Lake Wildlife Sanctuary has been identified as one of the five major mangrove areas, a ‘priority wetland’ and an important coastal and marine biodiversity area in Tamil Nadu.
Aves explained that the construction of the port will increase erosion and if the narrow strip of sand separating the sea from the lake disappears, the risk of salinity ingress will increase and the groundwater could turn salty.
The livelihoods of about one lakh people from Ennore in Tamil Nadu to Sulupet in Andhra Pradesh will be impacted by the project, Aves said.
Responding to The Quint’s query asked in connection with a related report, Roy Paul, Associate Vice President, Corporate Brand Custodian of Adani Group wrote that the proposed expansion project at Katupalli will exclude the ecologically vulnerable areas. The Adani Group’s vision for Tamil Nadu would position the state as a prominent logistics hub that fuels exports in the region, he added.
Another pet project by Aves is his year-long documentation of insects. The farming cycle is directly dependent on insects, he vouches. In a children’s book he wrote, “If there is food on our plate, it is because of the bees, butterflies, wasps and ants. Unsustainable farming practices like use of fertilisers, vehicular pollution and pollution of water bodies have been preventing insects from breeding.”
The young naturalist intends to write a series of books and children’s stories to educate people that climate crisis is a problem of perception.
The naturalist in Aves believes that it is the young people who should demand climate justice and put an end to the ongoing environmental misgovernance in India and in Tamil Nadu.
In 2019, Aves and his fellow climate activists created the Chennai Climate Action Group to advocate, research and campaign for environmental and social causes.
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