Activists to move Supreme Court against Aarey verdict

Environmentalists said they will move the Supreme Court (SC) next week, after the Bombay high court (HC) on Friday upheld the civic body’s decision to cut or transplant

Environmentalists said they will move the Supreme Court (SC) next week, after the Bombay high court (HC) on Friday upheld the civic body’s decision to cut or transplant 2,646 trees at Aarey Milk Colony, Goregaon, for constructing a car shed for Metro-3 (Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ) corridor.

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“We are disappointed [with today’s HC order], but we will continue the fight before SC,” said Zoru Bathena, a petitioner.

In its judgment to dismiss the writ petition and public interest litigation (PIL), the division bench of chief justice Pradeep Nandrajog and justice Bharati Dangre directed the petitioners to approach the apex court on their special leave petition (SLP) pending at the SC and proceedings pending before the National Green Tribunal (NGT).

“Our petitions in SC and NGT have been pending for many years now. While we are expecting a final hearing in the NGT next week, we will move SC, seeking for a speedy hearing on our matter,” said Stalin D, petitioner and director of non-governmental organisation (NGO) Vanashakti.

Earlier this year, the Aarey Conservation Group (ACG) had filed an SLP challenging the state government’s 2017 notification that removed the 33-hectare land from the ‘No Development Zone’ category to allow construction of the Metro car shed.

In June 2015, Vanashakti and ACG had filed a petition with NGT’s western bench in Pune against the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC), seeking that Aarey be declared as a forest and to identify the eco-sensitive zone (ESZ) around Sanjay Gandhi National Park, and that construction of the 33-hectare car shed be carried out at another location. They also challenged a notification by the Union environment ministry that excluded the land reserved for the car depot from being declared as an ESZ.