The Mithi River Race in Mumbai on November 30, 2014
The Mithi River Race – Half Marathon, 10km, 5km.
The Cause
‘Rivers are the Lifelines of this Planet’ & to drive this point, the last Sunday of September is celebrated as World Rivers Day all across the globe since 1980.
Mumbai has four major rivers running across the city and the most prominent one being Mithi river, which got noticed after the unfortunate Mumbai deluge in the year 2005. Abused over the ages and being dumped with all kind of harmful waste products like chemicals and plastic, the once smooth flowing and beautiful river has been turned into a sewer, beyond all recognition.
All of Mumbai’s four major rivers originate in the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, Borivali. And, it’s only within the park that the rivers are relatively clean. They begin to get polluted as soon as they exit its protected natural environs and enter the city.
The Mithi begins from the overflow of the Vihar and Powai lakes. Madhav Chitale, who prepared a report on the causes of the 2005 flood for the state government, says, “The Mithi River gets polluted as soon as it leaves the national park. Within the park, the only pollution is from leaves that fall from trees. If these are not removed, they become muck. Yet the river is as clean as it can be in the park.”
The Reason
A River is essentially ‘Energy of Water’, while Marathon is about ‘Energy of People’. Rivers signify the Flow & Purity as against stagnation and Marathons nurtures a Healthy Mind in a Healthy Body as against Inactivity. Rivers connect cities & civilization like running & cycling does to our higher self and our community.
Running is the most popular recreational & economic activity the world over requiring only a pair of shoes. Of all the sporting activity, Running has emerged to be the largest and the most active community, not only on the roads but on social media as well. With close to 40,000 runners participating in Mumbai Marathon & equal number being declined from participation speaks about the popularity of running. Ecofolks has been chasing the goal of increasing the Green footprint has been instrumental in bringing people close to Mother Nature through various Running events (https://www.facebook.com/ecofolks).Running events remains the most effective medium for generating mass awareness about social issues world over.
The Team
Ecofolks is a collaborative team of nature and adventure enthusiast from different fields of life working towards building harmonious relations between humans and nature. It is involved in creating niche events around various environmental issues for different Target groups. It’s successful projects includes the first of its kind- 24 hour environment photography competition held annually in Mumbai-FOTOTHON (http://www.fotothon.in) supported by Government of Maharashtra and for the past three years has seen over seven hundred participants.
Ecofolks also conceptualized a marathon in the hill station of Matheran under the banner of ‘Man and Mountain Meet’ called MATHE-RUN (http://manandmountainmeet.ecofolks.com) to celebrate International Mountains Day ( 11th Dec) to bring about awareness amongst locals as well as tourists about the issues plaguing the hill station.
Coordinators:
Mr Paresh: [email protected] – 09821194396
Mr Shyam: [email protected] – 09821027495
Ms Firoza: [email protected] – 09820047420
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