Cutting 2,700 Trees for Mumbai Metro Project Ignites Protests
No more trees must be cut until a special bench hears the matter on Oct. 21: Supreme Court.
(Bloomberg) -- India’s Supreme Court’s order on Monday seeking a halt on felling of trees in an area frequented by leopards and vulnerable birds that is also sought for building a depot for Mumbai’s ambitious metro rail project had little effect as authorities cut 98% of the targeted number of trees in less than two days, ensuring the critical infrastructure project doesn’t see further delays.
Earlier, the proposal to fell as many as 2,700 trees located in an area known as Aarey in suburban Mumbai, met with massive protests that saw arrests and detention of more than 2 dozen activists, while it also triggered an outcry from the main ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party days before state elections.
No more trees must be cut until a special bench hears the matter on Oct. 21, the Supreme Court said after an emergency hearing on Monday. Authorities began chopping down trees marked for clearance late on Friday, within a few hours of a Bombay High Court ruling that said the Aarey area wasn’t a forest. The court also ordered the release of all protesters who had been arrested.
“No further tree felling activity at the car shed site in Aarey Milk Colony. Other works, including clearing of already felled trees will continue at the site,” Mumbai Metro Rail Corp. said via a Twitter post late Monday evening. The agency also said that it had the permission to cut 2,185 trees of which 2,141 have been removed and construction of a car shed will be carried out once the area is cleared.
Activists alleged the action violated rules that stipulate a 15-day window -- which MMRC denies -- and rushed to the spot only to be evicted by police. “This is sheer arrogance. They think they can run the city the way they want,” said Zoru Bhathena, a petitioner in the case.
The tussle underscores the difficulties Mumbai faces as one of the world’s most densely populated cities tries to upgrade critical infrastructure for citizens. Built mostly on land reclaimed from the sea, its colonial-era drainage system is increasingly insufficient to prevent flooding, eight people die on average each day on its overcrowded trains, and the few surviving patches of mangroves or forests like Aarey are losing out to shantytowns or developers.
“Whatever had to be cut is cut. Nothing further will be cut,” Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said for the government of Maharashtra. He said the protesters have already been released.
Modi’s administration has backed the felling, with federal Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar saying at a briefing on Saturday that development of civic facilities and protecting the environment must go hand in hand. Police cordoned off the area -- with official vans used to block approach roads -- imposed restrictions on travel and assembly of people, and detained about 30 protesters.
However, a regional party, Shiv Sena, the main ally of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party in the state, has vociferously opposed the felling. While critics point out that the Shiv Sena is part of the ruling coalition and will stand with the BJP when the state votes Oct. 21, its leader Aaditya Thackeray criticized authorities for “detention of peaceful protesters and citizens.”
Located adjacent to Sanjay Gandhi National Park, which is home to more than hundreds of species of birds and animals including sunbirds, the white-bellied sea eagle and leopard, Aarey was established soon after India’s independence as a zone primarily aimed at improving production of dairy products. Since then the land, which is spread over 1,700 football fields and holds over 500,000 trees some as old as 110 years, has accommodated film studio sets, some apartment blocks and squatters.
Mumbai, home to more than 18 million people, is struggling to build roads and metro lines to ease the burden on a rail network that moves more than 8 million people, about the population of Israel, each day. The proposed metro line 3, which will pass underneath the city’s central suburbs and also connect two airport terminals, is expected to be used by 1.7 million commuters daily, according to MMRC, a joint venture between the state of Maharashtra and the federal government, which is implementing the project.
Few disagree on the need for a new system of mass transport but the choice of Aarey -- known locally as Mumbai’s green lung -- as the plot where metro rakes will be washed and serviced has raised questions about sustainable development in a city with a carbon footprint twice the national average.
Representatives for MMRC and the local police couldn’t be contacted for comment over the weekend. MMRC Managing Director Ashwini Bhide, who is overseeing the metro project, tweeted that her team has planted 24,000 trees and is committed to plant more and maintain them. She also said that the MMRC complied with the rule that stipulates that the company wait for 15 days after the municipal authority allowed the felling.
“Need, not greed, has been our guiding principle” to tackle climate change, Modi said at the United Nations last month. “And that is why India isn’t just here to preach, it has come equipped with a practical mindset and a roadmap to solve the problem.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Ashutosh Joshi in Mumbai at ajoshi86@bloomberg.net;Upmanyu Trivedi in New Delhi at utrivedi2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Arijit Ghosh at aghosh@bloomberg.net, Jeanette Rodrigues, Abhay Singh
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