Mumbai: The Supreme Court (SC) directed the Tree Authority of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) not to grant any tree felling permission within the Aarey colony without the apex court’s permission. Though the greens welcomed the judgment, the activists from the Save Aarey movement say the SC’s ban on tree felling in Aarey has been in force since October 2019.
Despite the ban, there have been more than 2000 trees cut in Aarey since 2022 violating the court’s orders. The activists continue raising questions on non-transparency on the actual number of trees cut from the dense Aarey colony for erecting the Metro 3 car shed and the police protection the violators have been receiving.
“In 2019 SC granted itself stay on all tree cutting in Aarey. In 2022, SC approved cutting of 177 trees, which in 2023 increased by 200. They have turned a blind eye to the 2000 trees illegally cut in the breach of their stay order,” environmentalist Zoru Bhathena said.
While activist Sanjiv Valsan highlighted that hours after Eknath Shinde was sworn in as the CM of the then Mahayuti government in 2022, hundreds of trees were cut in Aarey, despite then Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis claiming no more tree felling at Aarey was required for constructing the car shed.
“We the citizens will never know the actual amount of green cover we have lost in Aarey. 2000 plus trees have been illegally cut since 2022 for the Metro car shed and were documented by activists via photos, videos and Google Earth images. However, on government official records there was no tree cutting inside Aarey. How has the Metro 3 car shed inside Aarey come up then?”, said Valsan.
During the SC hearing on Friday, the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (MMRCL) told the court on behalf of the state government that no more trees are required to be felled in Aarey Colony for the Mumbai Metro Line project. The affidavit of the state government was in response to an order passed by the court on December 20 in a suo motu matter seeking information on whether the state had any proposal to cut further trees at Aarey colony.
Director of NGO Vanshakti, Stalin D said, “Representing Maharashtra government, the MMRCL has told they do not need any more tree felling inside Aarey. The question is what about other government projects like Metro Bhawan and SRA project? We pointed this out to the SC on Friday, however, the court said there are no projects on the record as of now. But the fact remains, that the Maharashtra government told Bombay HC recently that they can come up with SRA project inside the Aarey colony.”
“If there is any other project, it will require cutting the dense tree cover. Our only objective is to Save Aarey from further degradation. We want to protect the green cover in Aarey beyond 828 acres- the already declared reserved land inside Aarey. The SC is aware the violators find loopholes and thus have stayed the BMC from granting any tree-cutting permissions inside Aarey,” Stalin said.
Stalin also highlighted that MMRCL has never come out with a clear picture of the number of trees cut inside Aarey for the Metro car shed. “MMRCL had floated a tender to cut 4000 trees inside Aarey for Metro car shed and over 2000 have been cut. We need clear answers,” he said.
The SC will hear pleas challenging the felling of trees in Aarey forest for constructing a metro car shed on March 5. The BMC Tree Authority meanwhile is permitted to process proposals for tree felling inside the Aarey colony, however, permission cannot be granted without the SC’s permission.
