Mumbai Boy Wins International Young Eco-Hero Award

Ayaan Shankta, a 13-year-old boy, who lives in Powai Mumbai have received the prestigious International Young Eco-Hero Award, 2021. He is studying at Dhirubhai Ambani International School. He is an environmentalist, swimmer and am very passionate about the environment, robotics and sports.

The Action for Nature, an NGO, based in San Francisco, hands out the awards annually to youngsters (8-16 age group) from across the globe for taking action to improve the environment

Ayaan lives in Powai, a suburb of Mumbai, India. Nearby Powai Lake is the town’s central landmark. Once beautiful and pristine, and a source of drinking water for Mumbai, these days the lake has become a dumping ground for garbage and sewage. 

Growing up, Ayaan’s parents took him to Powai Lake cleaning drives every Sunday, where he saw the trash thrown around, the water level gradually receding, and algae and shrubs encroaching to cover nearly half the lake. He thought about the deterioration, how the area’s overall ecological balance was being affected, and ultimately wondered whether the lake could be saved.

Ayaan’s project, “Conservation and Rehabilitation of Powai Lake,” aims to bring awareness among the community so the lake can be brought back to its original beauty, and the surrounding flora and fauna can be protected. He began by studying the root causes of environmental degradation, working with agencies like Naushad Ali Sarovar Samvardhini (NASS), Maharashtra State Angling Association, and the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai (IIT). He carried out a detailed survey of the lake – from the water, onshore, and using satellite imagery – and conducted interviews with stakeholders. Using his skills in robotics, Ayaan recently designed the ‘Autonomous Spatial Pollution Detection Robot’, which is a self-driving robot capable of detecting pollution and siltation in lakes with spatial accuracy, which he has presented to a team of professors who are guiding him from IIT Mumbai.

Ayaan learned that with the modernization and expansion of the city of Mumbai, the lake became a convenient place to drain sewage, dump construction waste, or pump out water for construction purposes. He also learned that nearby businesses, hotels, and people living around the lake found it an easy and accessible place to dispose of waste. Most importantly, there was no regulatory body or enforcement agency that could safeguard the ecology.

In addition to working with NGOs to raise awareness locally and organize clean-ups, Ayaan authored an action report on lake conditions, which received a gold medal from the Homi Bhabha Balvaidnyanik Competition. He has constantly been engaging with the local government agencies to help find viable solutions to the issue of pollution in Powai Lake and is currently working on a documentary about the Lake.

“I plan to further this mission so that the lake regains its past glory as a clean and vibrant water body,” says Ayaan, “which not only will help in bringing about the ecological balance in the thickly populated city like Mumbai but also help in conserving the endangered species.” 

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Article and image source: ActionForNature.org