Indian-origin man's climate protest at US Open captures global attention

An Indian-origin man who glued his feet to the stadium floor in a dramatic climate protest at the US Open, has said it was a way of conveying his message directly to the people as other methods have been ineffective.

Sayak Mukhopadhyay was arrested at the Arthur Ashe Stadium after disrupting the US Open match between American Coco Gauff and Czech Karolina Muchova on 7 September for about 50 minutes.

He and two others from the group Extinction Rebellion NYC stood up shouting “no tennis on a dead planet”, and “end fossil fuels” before Mukhopadhyay removed his shoes and glued his feet to the floor, making it difficult for police to remove him.

He later told New York Post: “The climate change movement has tried everything from writing and lobbying for legislation to demonstrating and blockading banks, but none of that has been as effective as communicating directly to the public by going to public institutions like museums and sporting arenas."

Gauff, who defeated Muchova in the match and went on to win the US Open, said at a news conference that she couldn’t get “too mad” at the antic because “it was done in a peaceful way”. “I believe in climate change,” she added.

Mukhopadhyay was charged with trespassing, according to the New York Police Department. It said in a statement that the department’s emergency service unit personnel were able to “safely free him” and arrest him.

He was released with a notice to appear in court. According to an Extinction Rebellion NYC post on X, 50-year-old Mukhopadhyay moved to New York from his native Kolkata 25 years ago.

It quoted him as saying that he was horrified by the climate injustice faced by people in India who have to pay the price for the climate change caused by emissions produced by developed countries.

“India is something I constantly think about because I grew up there and I am keenly aware of how low the level of resource consumption and energy consumption is there," he said.

But the people of the Gangetic delta are the ones who are "going to pay the price for this huge amount of resources and energy consumption in the global north”, he added.