Aa-rey of hope? Decision to cut 2,100 trees in Mumbai can be reviewed soon

After nearly four years of back and forth over the matter, the 18-member tree authority passed the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation’s (MMRC) proposal on Thursday, even though six Sena corporators had opposed it.

The civic body-appointed tree authority’s decision to clear a proposal to axe more than 2,100 trees in Aarey Colony for a Metro-3 car depot, which has drawn flak from politicians and environmentalists, could be reconsidered after three months. According to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) rules, the proposal can be reopened after three months if any member of the authority wants to reverse the decision.

The civic body-appointed tree authority’s decision to clear a proposal to axe more than 2,100 trees in Aarey Colony for a Metro-3 car depot could be reconsidered after three months. (Satish Bate/HT File Photo)

The Shiv Sena, which has opposed the decision, has said it will seek reconsideration of the proposal this week and also challenge the decision legally.

After nearly four years of back and forth over the matter, the 18-member tree authority passed the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation’s (MMRC) proposal on Thursday, even though six Sena corporators had opposed it.

A civic official said the cleared proposal can be reopened for reconsideration after three months as per BMC rules. “The Tree Act does not say anything about the reopening of the proposal. However, one can reopen the proposal after three months as per the rules governing the civic tree authority,” said a BMC official. “In case of decisions taken by BMC’s standing committee or improvement committee, the proposals can be reopened only by absent members. But, in case of the tree authority, any member can reopen it after three months,” he said.

The official added that they will also seek legal opinion on whether the proposal can reopened before three months if there is a demand. While Prakash Jekate, municipal secretary of BMC, refused to comment on the matter, Jitendra Pardeshi, chief of the garden department was not available for a comment.

Yashwant Jadhav, Sena corporator and tree authority member, said, “We’ll push for reopening the proposal next week. I don’t think it takes three months to open the proposal. We’ll seek legal opinion on the same.”

Though the tree authority’s decision was a major boost for the Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ corridor, two expert members of the panel resigned on Saturday, on the grounds that they did not get “sufficient” time to visit the site, “no due process” was followed, and the decision was taken in “haste”.

Out of the 18 members on the panel, 13 are corporators and remaining five are experts. While four corporators from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), three experts and one Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) corporator had supported the felling of trees, six Shiv Sena corporators opposed it. Two Congress corporators abstained from voting, while two expert members were absent at the meeting.

Meanwhile, MMRC has said it plans to start work on the depot, spread across 25 hectares, in a month, once the BMC garden department issues a notification