Wildlife and conservation photojournalist Steve Winter in an interview with Hindustan Times raised concerns over how politicians were “giving away pieces of the city’s green lung for their 30 pieces of silver”. When asked about his views on several developmental projects planned inside the Aarey forest, he replies:
“I am against taking over the small area that these leopards have. It is not only illegal but is devoid of ethics and morals. In the United States, something like this is unimaginable. There is plenty of space beyond protected forests for development. The more we encroach, more will be serious cases of conflict. Forests are vitally important for our future, and there is no better example of an urban forest other than Aarey. If measures are not taken to protect Aarey, within 20 years, Mumbai will lose its priceless possession and the only thing left will be the core area choked and surrounded by buildings.”
Click the link for the full interview: https://www.hindustantimes.com/mumbai-news/aarey-is-world-s-most-unique-big-cat-habitat/story-7ajeypyt3rPY39Phqa4dMO.html
The National Geographic photojournalist has a point. In New York, Central Park which is 840 acres urban park was made car-free last year. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that he would ban vehicles from the roads winding through Central Park. “This park was not built for automobiles. It was built for people.” de Blasio said.
In stark contrast, in Mumbai, MMRCL is tearing open an urban forest for building a Metro car shed! Besides, the former government had planned various development projects right from slum rehabilitation, film city, RTO office, a zoo, etc. inside the forest.
The former government cites ‘development’ as an excuse to cut open our natural forests. If development takes place by destroying forests, then some of the most developed countries should have fewer trees compared to the developing nations. But on the contrary, more developed nations have more trees compared to developing India.
Canada 8,953 trees per person
Russia 4,461 trees per person
Australia 3,266 trees per person
United States 716 trees per person
France 182 trees per person
United Kingdom 47 trees per person
India just 28 trees per person
Every complex megacity like Mumbai across the world has to address significant challenges to local and regional biodiversity, including pollution, climate change, sea-level rise, stormwater management, and human population growth. Nonetheless, cities across the world have made progress in improving the environmental quality of its urban ecosystems and in the provisioning of a broad range of urban ecosystem services which makes their Liveability Index much higher than Mumbai’s. Little wonder that WHO’s global air pollution database ranks Mumbai, the fourth most polluted megacity.
Our policymakers need to strike the right balance in actions, investments and partnerships directed towards development and ecological conservation which will help them address climate change while making development. The first step towards striking this balance is conserving the urban forests by shifting all the development activities outside the forest area.