More than 1000 trees razed in Mumbai's Aarey, 60 people arrested
Mumbai, Oct 5 (UNI/IBNS) More than 1000 trees in Mumbai's Aarey Colony have been cut till now despite massive protests against the move to cut down over 2500 trees in the area for a Mumbai metro depot.
Bombay High Court today again refused to intervene in the matter on the grounds that the case is pending before the National Green Tribunal and the Supreme Court, the reasons it had cited on Friday.
The environmentalists had approached the High Court seeking a stay on the cutting of trees until the Supreme Court passed its judgment on the matter.
The Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd(MMRCL) had started hacking trees from Friday to make way for a car shed, hours after the Bombay High Court dismissed four petitions filed by NGOs and activists challenging the decision to allow felling of trees in the prime green lung of the city.
On Saturday, Mumbai police arrested 33 people, including nine women, for allegedly protesting against the cutting of trees at Aarey Colony, the proposed site of Metro Car shed.
Those arrested are among the 60 people earlier detained by police, a police official said.
"We have arrested 33 protesters, nine of them are women. Some of them had manhandled and beaten the police personnel deployed in Aarey Colony and obstructed them from discharging their duty," the police official claimed.
However, hundreds of environmental activists gathered at Aarey Colony and protested. They also tried to stop the authorities from chopping down the trees.
The green patch in the midst of urban Mumbai’s western suburbs, where leopards are spotted often and has been cited as an example of man-animal coexistence in a city like Mumbai, has been identified for a metro car shed for the Mumbai Metro Rail Corridor line from Colaba to SEEPZ (Special Electronics Export Processing Zone) in the Andheri East area, which runs between south and north Mumbai. The Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report 2012 for the proposed metro project in Aarey stated, “no wildlife has been observed at project site”.
But camera traps show otherwise. A group of researchers and wildlife enthusiasts, in collaboration with the forest department, has diligently been recording data of wildlife, including the elusive predators that have made Aarey their home, according to a report by Mongabay India.
Top Image: Mongabay-India
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