Just 9 days after the tree authority visits Aarey forest and assures the public and tribal community that they shall fervently protect 2702 trees from being chopped due to construction of Metro car shed, it turned into a turncoat and cleared the proposal of chopping 2702 trees. 

This is a major setback for the citizens and environmentalists who have been fighting for more than 2 years trying to save the last remaining green lungs of Mumbai from falling prey to concretisation. 

This is a major mockery of democracy. There have been two public hearings, more than 2 lac objection letters sent to the tree authority from citizens, around 5 lac signatures on the online petition portals to shift the car shed out of Aarey, yet the authorities conveniently neglected the public opinion and continued to destroy Aarey forest.

Yes, Mumbai needs better public transport to offset its carbon footprint. But in order to save a city gasping from space MMRC cannot leave a city gasping for air.

Why do we have to choose between development and the environment? Why can't our government authorities exercise caution and discretion in balancing both? Metro 3 infrastructure can be made sustainable by shifting the car shed out of a forest area.

Tree transplantation is not at all a sustainable form of development. BMC and MMRC have a very poor history of tree transplantation drives. The BMC’s tree authority permitted the felling of 25,018 trees between 2010 and 2016, revealed a right-to-information (RTI) response. However, it failed to provide records for the number of trees replanted or transplanted in their stead over seven years.

MMRC has not been able to save most of the trees affected by the metro rail. The Bombay high court-appointed committee remarked that the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC) has not carried out the transplantation of trees affected by the Metro-3 project efficiently, that many transplanted trees did not show signs of sprouting, while the metro rail body has also delayed geo-tagging the affected trees, as recommended by the committee. It slammed MMRC for not using modern machines to transplant trees. It noted that more than 50 per cent of the trees did not survive. 

While Mumbai remains the topmost polluted city in Maharashtra and fourth most polluted megacity of the world, there an urgent need to increase the green cover of the city. By permitting cutting 2702 trees in the already choked city, MMRC and BMC are pushing Mumbai towards a major pollution crisis.

The onus to save Mumbai's ecology and biodiversity has again come onto the citizens. The fight to shift the metro car shed from Aarey forest needs to be more vigorous than ever.