Why outrage over cutting trees now and not between 2013-2017: MMRCL chief

Ever since the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) tree committee had passed the proposal to cut 2,185 trees and transplant 461 trees in Aarey colony on August 29, the city has witnessed several protests opposing the move.

The managing director of the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MMRCL), Ashwini Bhide, took to social media on Friday to ask citizens why they were opposed to the cutting of trees at Aarey Colony for the Metro 3 project, while they were quiet when the civic body’s tree authority had approved the cutting of 24,472 trees and transplanting of 14,398 trees between 2013 and 2017.

Ever since the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) tree committee had passed the proposal to cut 2,185 trees and transplant 461 trees in Aarey colony on August 29, the city has witnessed several protests opposing the move. (HT Photo)

“MCGM Tree Authority have given approval to cut 24,472 trees from 2013 to 2017. 10,074 trees among them to be cut and 14,398 trees to be transplanted. What is their status? Has anyone heard any noise against it? Why now? Why so much?” read Bhide’s tweet.

Ever since the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) tree committee had passed the proposal to cut 2,185 trees and transplant 461 trees in Aarey colony on August 29, the city has witnessed several protests opposing the move.

In a series of tweets, Bhide said the alternate land for the car shed, first shortlisted at Kanjurmarg, is not a viable option because it is a private land and its owners have obtained a stay in 1996, preventing the state government to make use of it.

Similarly, BMC chief Praveen Pardeshi, on Wednesday, had told the civic standing committee that the case for obtaining the Kanjurmarg land was pending in the Supreme Court and the government will pay ₹5,000 crore to obtain it.

Pardeshi also said that the Metro car shed would occupy only 33ha of land inside Aarey, which spreads across 1,200ha.

Bhide further said that the environmental benefit of the Metro 3 project, as assessed by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation and validated by United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change auditors, is that 2.61 lakh metric tonnes of carbon dioxide emission will be reduced every year.

Stalin D, director of NGO Vanashakti, said, “It’s not about trees alone and we cannot trivialise the issue. There are 86 species and some of them are forest species. It is a very absurd logic to say citizens cannot speak up.”

Asif Zakaria, member of the BMC standing committee (Congress), said, “It is not just the car shed that the citizens are opposing. There is a Metro Bhavan set to come up in Aarey Colony that will be a 32-storey building. This building will have more office spaces and require additional infrastructures and more sewer lines.”