‘Do you want to covert Aarey colony into a developed area’: HC asks Maharashtra government

An NGO has filed a plea in Bombay HC complaining about construction and commercial activities proposed at the Aarey Milk Colony although the area is shown as Green Zone in the recently sanctioned development plan for the city and the entire colony is otherwise declared an ecologically sensitive area.

The Bombay high court on Monday asked if the state government wanted to convert the entire Aarey Colony into a developed area, and directed it to file an affidavit in reply to a petition seeking the state government to be directed to declare the entire 1,280 hectares of the Aarey Colony as a protected forest.

File photo of the Aarey Colony, Goregaon, Mumbai. (HT File Photo)

“Do you want to convert the entire colony into a developed area,” the division bench of justices RM Borde and VL Achliya asked the state counsel, additional government pleader GW Mattos.

It was hearing a petition filed by a non-profit organisation Vanashakti complaining about construction and commercial activities proposed at the Aarey Milk Colony although the area is shown as Green Zone in the recently sanctioned development plan for the city and the entire colony is otherwise declared an ecologically sensitive area.

The non-profit organisation has contended that a natural habitat of a large number of animals, including eight resident leopards and endangered reptile species such as the Indian rock python, Aarey Colony also has the flora and fauna that is peculiar and exclusive to the city of Mumbai.

It has expressed urgent need to protect the forest lands, also a home to at least 27 tribal hamlets, stating that it has been recognised by experts as a green cover with rich biodiversity of tremendous ecological value in terms of absorption of excess rainwater, raising groundwater level, providing more oxygen for the city of Mumbai.

Counsel for the petitioner body, senior advocate Gayatri Singh, pointed out that apart from the car shed for Mumbai Metro, over 33 hectares of the green cover, huge constructions was being done and proposed within the Colony, although it has been designated as “Green Zone” under the sanctioned development plan 2034.

She complained that the construction and commercial activities will result in large scale destruction of the only terrestrial natural forests in Mumbai with large canopy and rich bio-diversity. She submitted that the ecologically rich and fragile forest area will soon be permanently destroyed, and urged the division bench of Justice RM Borde and Justice VL Achliya to grant interim stay to any development work in Aarey Colony, except the metro car shed.

Mattos opposed the plea on the ground that though a relief is sought against Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority, the authority had not been named as party to the petition. Besides, he said, the issue was already determined by another bench of the high court, which rejected petitions challenging metro car shed at Aarey Colony.

Singh, however, pointed out that the issue raised in the petition was not covered by the judgement pronounced in the metro car shed case. The judges, however, refused to pass interim orders without allowing the state and the other respondents to file affidavits in reply to the petition, and directed all of them to file their respective affidavits in four weeks.