‘Fadnavis had instructed the removal of Metro-3 land in Aarey from ESZ’

Previously unpublished documents have revealed that Devendra Fadnavis had directed the exclusion of 33-hectares of Aarey land from the eco-sensitive zone (ESZ)

Previously unpublished documents, made public by Save Aarey campaigners on Friday, have revealed that then chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had, in 2016, directed the exclusion of 33-hectares of Aarey land from the eco-sensitive zone (ESZ) of Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP). The land had been slotted for construction of the Metro-3 car depot.

Metro 3 car shed at Aarey Colony in Mumbai (Satyabrata Tripathy/HT Photo)

An ESZ refers to a demarcated “buffer” area aimed at reducing developmental pressures around a wildlife sanctuary or national park. Inclusion of an area under an ESZ is significant because it increases the level of scrutiny for any activity proposed on the land, from an environment standpoint.

Fadnavis’s directions were given to the forest department and the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (MMRCL) in two ‘war room’ meetings chaired by him during his tenure as CM, on February 3 and April 29, 2016. “The war room minutes, signed by Hon CM, to be considered as final verdict on concerned issues,” the minutes note.

Hindustan Times reached out to deputy chief minister Fadnavis for a comment but he did not respond.

With regard to Metro-3, Fadnavis in February 2016 directed the MMRCL to “make the following applications” before the union environment ministry, including “Exclusion of car depot area from ESZ” and “Metro as a permissible activity within Borivali National Park ESZ”. He directed these “objections to be made, with Forest department backing, to MoEF”.

In a second meeting on April 29, Fadnavis directed “MMRCL and Forest Department to submit revised maps to MoEF for exclusion of Metro car depot land at Aarey from the ESZ.”

At the time, the union environment ministry had not yet notified the ESZ around SGNP, which was in the process of being demarcated by the forest department, pursuant to Supreme Court orders.

In December 2015, the state government had recommended to the environment ministry that the “entire Aarey Colony forms part of the proposed Eco-sensitive Zone around Sanjay Gandhi National Park.” A year later, on December 5, 2016, the ministry issued a notification finalising the limits of this ESZ. In a supplementary note, the ministry explained that it “had received a large number of responses from elected representatives, various organisations and agencies such as the Bombay Municipal Corporation, the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation and others on the draft Notification. Taking these into consideration, an area of 1.65 sq km land for the Mumbai Metro Rail Shed of Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation, temple, etc has been excluded in the final Notification.”

Thus, the total area of land removed from the ambit of environmental scrutiny, for the express purpose of the Metro Rail Shed and other unspecified activities, comes to a total of 165 hectares, and not just the 33 hectares slotted for the Metro-3 carshed.

“What discussions happened between the state government, the MMRCL, the MoEFCC and the forest department between March and December of 2-16 is unclear, but the outcome is clear as day,” said Zoru Bhatena, one of the environmentalists responsible for making the ‘war room’ minutes public.

The exclusion of such a large chunk of Aarey land from the SGNP buffer area poses a significant reason for worry, despite Fadnavis’s repeated promises that the plot will be used only to build a car-shed, and not for any commercial developments. The CM’s war room minutes of April 2016 reveal that the Urban Development Department was instructed to issue a change of land use notification for the 33-hectare plot from “no development zone” to “depot and related activities”. The minutes, much to the ire of Save Aarey campaigners, mention that “Related activities (are) to be clarified as commercial activities subsequently”.

Stalin D, director of NGO Vanashakti and a figurehead in the Save Aarey movement, said, “165 hectares of Aarey land have been removed from the ESZ for a car shed that will become insufficient in less than a decade. And commercial use of the land has also been considered, but wittingly kept from the public. This is evidence enough that the Metro-3’s footprint in Aarey is going to be much larger than what the public is being told,” said.