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Meet the Green Warrior who has virtually stalled Chandigarh’s Tribune flyover project
Paveela Bali says nature should not become a casualty in the face of progress.
An eight-year-old in Gujarat would pull her father to show him piles of garbage in their locality, and ask him to call the local municipality to clear it.
Decades later, Paveela Bali, has now stirred the city after the Punjab and Haryana high court virtually stalled work on the Tribune flyover on her NGO’s plea.
Born to a businessman in Veraval locality of Junagarh, Paveela says her passion remains the same, just the place has changed.
Having studied at Sophia Girls’ College, Ajmer, Rajasthan, and later graduated from a Pune college, Paveela shifted to Chandigarh in 1997 after marrying Puneet Bali, a senior advocate and son of former chief justice of Kerala high court, VK Bali.
Now 45, the homemaker for years was dedicated to the upbringing of her son and daughter, spending her entire time on them and managing domestic affairs. As her children grew up, she shifted her focus to social causes.
In 2008, while going for her daily runs, she would often find sanitation in the northern sectors amiss. “Over the years, it degraded further. So in 2015, our group of runners got into clearing littered garbage in these areas. Running made me take up the cause,” says Paveela.
They registered the group as an NGO, The Run Club, in 2017, and started taking up major cleanliness drives in and around her neighbourhood, Sukhna Lake and parts of the Capitol Complex. The group, which initially had 50-odd runners, has now swollen to 200 volunteers, who besides undertaking runs, still regularly get together to clear public places of litter.
To her family’s credit is also an independent compost plant and waste pits in their backyard. Even as the city is struggling to establish an effective waste management system. the family focuses on zero waste, not giving out the daily garbage.
While her husband is believed to be highest tax-paying lawyer in the city, Paveela says she doesn’t have huge interest in social gatherings and parties.
In April this year, she noticed a news items about the plan to axe hundreds of trees for the Tribune flyover project, which she says made her incredibly upset. She promptly took it up with her lawyer husband, who agreed to file a plea on her NGO’s behalf.
On November 20, the plea resulted in a stay order against tree cutting and transplanting for the flyover. “I am not against progress. But, nature should not become a casualty for it. What worried me more was the fact that necessary clearances were not obtained, and yet they planned to uproot some trees in winter and axe the remaining ones,” says Paveela.
“At least there will be some brainstorming now,” she adds.
The family, she says, has supported her through her campaign.
Her husband, Puneet, however, remains worried after her safety. “Confronting people in the public for using plastic doesn’t always go down well with them and occasionally also invites trouble. Concerned for her safety, we often accompany her when she steps out,” he adds.
The NGO’s members are all praises for her. Educationist Vibha Pandey, part of the team, says, “Paveela is doing a great job and making people wake up and contribute to social causes.”
However, environmentalist Rahul Mahajan, who volunteered to help the UT engineering department in transplanting the trees, says though it was great that her work for the environment was being noticed, why did she challenge the transplantation and felling of trees at this stage? “Everything was in the public domain for months,” says Mahajan, questioning the timing of the petition.
