Aarey forest: Don’t cast the hate for us on to our beloved Mumbai, Aaditya Thackeray tells Maha govt
PremiumOn July 3, environmentalists will engage in a new round of protest over the Metro-3 car shed project.
Former Cabinet Minister Aaditya Thackeray has “humbly" urged the new Maharashtra government to consider not moving the Metro-3 car shed project back to Mumbai's Aarey forest. In one of the first decisions after forming the government, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde overturned former CM Uddhav Thackeray’s decision and moved the project back to the 1,800 acre area, often termed as Mumbai's 'green lung'.
On July 3, environmentalists will engage in a new round of protest over the Metro-3 car shed project. In addition to leopards, the Aarey forest, which is near the Sanjay Gandhi National Park in suburban Goregaon, is home to some 300 different species of plants and animals. Environmental groups claim that the forest is an important habitat for wildlife, including some indigenous species, as well as a source of clean air for city dwellers.
“Since I have to attend the sitting of the State Legislative Assembly today, I will be missing out on the protest for Aarey Forest and the MMRCL land," Aaditya Thackeray tweeted. “I humbly urge new Govt to reconsider its decision. Don’t cast the hate for us, on to our beloved Mumbai(sic)."
“This is about sustainable development and better planning. This is about Mumbai’s development and we staying here instead of being handed over a badly planned project that destroys our Mumbai’s Aarey Forest (sic)," he added.
Five lakh trees are said to be present in the forest, which also has a few rivers and lakes flowing through it. Devendra Fadnavis, the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra, recently ordered the administration and the state attorney general to submit a proposal for building the car shed in Aarey Colony rather than Kanjurmarg, which was the preferred location by the previous Uddhav Thackeray-led state government.
When then-chief minister Prithviraj Chavan first proposed the Metro-3 car shed at Aarey, local NGO Vanashakti contested it in the Bombay High Court with the argument that cutting down trees in the region should not be allowed. After Chavan's death, Fadnavis continued to use the same location.
However, environmentalists had strenuously objected to the removal of trees from Aarey for the vehicle garage. The Metro-3 vehicle shed was moved to a location in the eastern suburb of Kanjurmarg after the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress coalition took office in 2019, although it was mired in legal wrangling at the time. Aarey had also been designated a restricted forest by the Thackeray administration.
(With agency inputs)