Bicycle Diary

Brikesh Singh has been on a bicycle tour for a month now, and from September 1, for another month, he will live on a tree.

On August 9, the 32-year-old kicked off his campaign to save forests of the country from getting consumed by coal-based power plants.

His journey that started from the bylanes of Mumbai will cover forest areas and conclude atop a tree in Chandrapur district.

Singh is telling people along the way how forests are being destroyed to facilitate coal mining to feed power plants. He is also studying the dwindling tiger population owing to destruction of habitat.

A film crew is accompanying Singh, who is a public engagement manager with Greenpeace India, capturing his mission on camera. It will be edited into nine, five-minute films and uploaded on the Greenpeace website for public viewing.

Along the way Singh, who was born into a poor family in a basti in Ghatkopar's Yasin Mistry Chawl, is interviewing people like electricity consumers, those working in power plants and tribal people displaced from their forest homes to make way for power plants.

Singh, who was educated in the Little Stars English High School in Ghatkopar as it was "the only English medium school my parents could afford at the time", believes it's his humble beginnings that has equipped him to face any situation head-on.

He says he will question the government about coal-based power plants proposed in the heart of India's richest forests.

On September 1, he plans to climb a tree at the site of a proposed power plant in Chandrapur and make it his home for a month.

Simultaneously, an online petition will be kicked off by Greenpeace to collect signatures of supporters. When he gets off the tree, the petition will be handed over to the government, with a plea to save natural habitats across the country. Singh says, "Let's show our leaders that a million voices cannot be ignored."

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