150 Weeks Of Save Aarey: Citizens Continue Vigil To Protect Mumbai’s Green Lung Amid Development Threats
As Mumbai continues in its rhythm, the environmentalists and activists who flagged off the destruction of Aarey, in ecological terms a forest itself, have been quietly keeping vigil. They completed 150 weeks of the ‘Save Aarey’ campaign—a no mean feat at a time when the green zone has been under considerable pressure to be used as potentially developable land, ironically from the authorities mandated to protect it, such as the state government of Maharashtra and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). The continuing campaign is critical to the conservation of this rare space, considered one of the green lungs of Mumbai.
It should not have had to fall on the shoulders of citizens to keep reminding the authorities that Aarey needs to be preserved, but the authorities must be watched. One of the city’s sensitive ecological hotspots, Aarey is spread over nearly 1,300 hectares with a bewildering variety of species of flora and fauna, including a few rare ones. From an urban ecological lens, the Aarey is contiguous with, or an extension of, the rich Sanjay Gandhi National Park but has been viewed with inexplicably less reverence. Decades ago, the informal and formal dairy industry as well as Film City, which required axing of trees, were permitted inside Aarey. These were ecologically more harmful than the Adivasis already living there and undertaking cultivation for ages, but the two were unfortunately equated to justify ‘development’.
The construction push came in the 1990s, with a private developer allowed to build high-end housing, but the latest round of permissions, including for the car shed of Metro 3, justifiably sparked off a new round of protests. Overnight, in 2019, more than 2,200 trees were hacked for this controversial project. Since then, the issue has been taken to the Supreme Court by activists and environmentalists, but, despite the apex court’s watch, more trees have been razed. Among the battles they have waged is the one for information on the extent of tree cutting in Aarey; they reckon over 5,000 have been axed. Google and other images show large tracts, over many hectares, denuded.
It is a telling comment on the authorities that a BJP leader alleged that film studios and private companies encroached on the land here and built huge structures, which nudged the authorities to issue notices. It is clearly not enough to declare Aarey as a reserve forest, as the Uddhav Thackeray-led government did in September 2020. It continues to be called ‘Aarey Colony’ and, worse, has been earmarked for the construction of a large zoo, theme parks, educational and research institutes and so on. By deliberate design, construction rather than conservation has been planned here, while the authorities make a show of creating a coastal forest in south Mumbai. This underscores the significance of citizens’ vigilance. More power to the green warriors of Mumbai.
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