Tag: Aarey Colony

SC Allows Mumbai Metro To Pursue Its Plea to Cut Down 84 Trees in Aarey

The apex court modified its 2019 order restraining the authorities from felling any more trees in Aarey for the purpose of a metro car shed.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday modified its order to maintain the status quo about tree felling in Mumbai’s Aarey colony, permitting the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (MMRCL) to approach the relevant authority to cut down 84 trees for the metro car shed project.

A bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice P.S. Narasimha took note of the submissions of solicitor general Tushar Mehta, appearing for MMRCL, that the felling of 84 trees was needed for constructing ramps for the trains at the car shed.

“The MMRCL should be permitted to pursue its application with the Tree Authority for felling 84 trees,” the bench said and fixed the main pleas against the Metro project for a final hearing in February next year.

Also Read: Ten Things to Know About Aarey and the Protests Surrounding It

Earlier, the apex court had in 2019 taken suo motu cognisance of a letter petition addressed to the CJI by law student Rishav Ranjan seeking a stay on the felling of trees in the colony.

The apex court had restrained the authorities from felling any more trees after the solicitor general submitted on behalf of the State of Maharashtra that no further trees will be cut.

The felling of trees in the colony has been opposed by environmentalists and residents.

When the triparty Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance led by Uddhav Thackeray came to power, the government relocated the metro car shed to Kanjurmarg. But after the government fell due to a rebellion by Eknath Shinde in June this year, the first administrative decision it took was to reverse the decision, moving the shed back to Aarey.

Chander Uday Singh, the lawyer appearing for parties who oppose the felling of trees, submitted that after the Shinde government’s decision to resume the work at Aarey was “taken without a cabinet” by the chief minister and deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.

According to LiveLaw, the lawyer argued that the decision to relocate the project to Kanjurmarg was taken on the basis of expert committee reports, unlike the reversal by the Shinde government.

However, the top court said that the Maharashtra government’s fresh decision to revert to Aarey as the location of the car shed from Kanjurmarg was “based on relevant considerations” and “it would be impossible for this court to stay the decision at the interim stage”.

It observed that the Bombay high court had upheld the felling of trees and also the decision to locate the metro car shed in Aarey. The bench also noted that the Supreme Court had earlier declined interim relief against the project, according to LiveLaw.

Bench disagrees that metro will lead to decongestion

The top court disagreed with Mehta’s submission that the metro would encourage citizens not to use cars, saying this is not the correct “extrapolation” and making cars “uneconomical” like Singapore may work.

In Singapore, cars are expensive and a prospective buyer has to secure certificates of entitlement (COE) in a bid as per media reports. A tender for COE bids for a mid-sized sedan costs around Rs 24 lakh.

Mehta, listing the benefits and the impact of the metro rail project, said carbon emissions would come down if the metro is running as vehicular traffic would also reduce.

“Above 13 lakh passengers may travel through the metro and may lead to ease in traffic situation, lesser number of cars, fuel consumption and air pollution,” he said.

“Rate of growth of cars will keep on increasing. People will continue having cars. See what happened in Delhi. You have the peripheral way but that does not mean that the city will get de-clogged,” the CJI observed.

“The extrapolation that the people will stop driving cars, fuel consumption will go down. It does not help. Reduction happens when you do something like Singapore – make it so uneconomical to have cars,” Justice Chandrachud said.

(With PTI inputs)

Note: The story was updated with the court’s observations on vehicular traffic after it was published. 

SC Prohibits Mumbai Metro Corporation From Cutting Any Trees in Aarey Colony

A three-judge bench headed by Justice U U Lalit said it would hear the matter further on August 30.

Mumbai: The Supreme Court on Wednesday, August 24, directed the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MMRCL) to strictly abide by its undertaking that no trees would be cut in Mumbai’s Aarey colony and warned that any violation will result in strict action.

A three-judge bench headed by Justice U.U. Lalit said it would hear the matter on August 30 after counsel for the Maharashtra government sought time to collate documents.

“The counsel for MMRCL submits that her clients have already filed an affidavit that no trees have been or would be cut in any manner. The said undertaking by the MMRCL director has already been taken on record and MMRCL shall be strictly bound by the same,” the bench also comprising Justices S.R. Bhat and Sudhanshu Dhulia said.

Also Read: Maharashtra Govt Lifts Stay Order on Metro Car Shed Construction in Mumbai’s Aarey Colony

Senior advocate Anitha Shenoy, appearing for the petitioner, alleged that clearing and levelling work is going on despite the apex court’s order.

The MMRCL had earlier told the Supreme Court that no trees have been cut in Mumbai’s Aarey colony after October 2019.

The apex court in 2019 had taken suo motu cognisance of a letter petition addressed to the then Chief Justice of India by a law student seeking a stay on the felling of trees in the Aarey colony.

The top court had restrained the authorities from cutting any more trees in the Aarey colony after the solicitor general had submitted on behalf of the state of Maharashtra that no further trees will be cut.

The felling of trees in the colony has been opposed by green activists and residents.

The Bombay high court in October, 2019 refused to declare Aarey Colony a forest and declined to quash the Mumbai municipal corporation’s decision to allow the cutting of over 2,600 trees in the green zone to set up a metro car shed.

(PTI)

Maharashtra Govt Lifts Stay Order on Metro Car Shed Construction in Mumbai’s Aarey Colony

In 2019, the Uddhav Thackeray government had stalled work on the Aarey metro rail car shed, citing environment concerns.

New Delhi: The Maharashtra government on July 21, Thursday lifted the stay order on the construction of the Mumbai Metro Line 3 car shed at Aarey Colony in the western suburbs.

The decision to resume work on Aarey metro car shed was taken after Eknath Shinde and Devendra Fadnavis took oath as chief minister and deputy chief minister on June 30.

“We have examined the entire matter and there is no need to bring the matter before the Cabinet. We asked the implementing agency, Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC), to prepare the proposal and mobilise contractor,” an official of the urban development department told the Indian Express.

The newspaper reported, citing officials, that the urban development department and MMRC had discussed this matter at the political level on July 20, Wednesday.

In 2019, the Uddhav Thackeray government had stalled work on the Aarey metro rail car shed, citing environment concerns.

The decision to set up the car shed in the Aarey area had faced opposition from environmentalists as it entailed cutting down hundreds of trees. The Thackeray-led government had later announced shifting of the project to Kanjurmarg.

“If the car shed is shifted to Kanjurmarg, it will end up in cutting of more number of trees, the project will be delayed and crores of rupees will be wasted,” Fadnavis had claimed.

However, the plan to shift the car shed construction to Kanjurmarg had been stuck.

The Bombay high court on December 14, 2020 stayed an order passed by Mumbai suburban district collector allotting 102 acres of salt pan land in the Kanjurmarg area for the construction of the metro car shed. The court had also restrained the authorities from carrying out any construction work on the said land.

Also read: Why Maharashtra’s Recent Political Turmoil Doesn’t Bode Well for Urban Local Bodies

The 33-km-long underground metro 3 project aims to connect Colaba in south Mumbai and SEEPZ.

Earlier, in October 2019, when Devendra Fadnavis was the chief minister, the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited had cut down more than 2,000 trees in the area for constructing the car shed. The trees were cut in just 24 hours after the Bombay high court overruled petitions challenging the felling of trees in the area.

The cutting of trees had led to a series of protests by local tribals across the city. The police had arrested at least 29 persons, including environmental activists, who were protesting against the cutting of trees in Aarey Colony. Several opposition leaders, including Nationalist Congress Party MLA Jitendra Awhad, Shiv Sena leader Priyanka Chaturvedi, and Sena leader and former mayor Shubha Raul, were detained.

Now years later, concerned Mumbaikars are once again up in arms against the decision to build a car shed in Aarey colony, The Wire reported.

The plan to construct a metro car shed in the Aarey forest has been on the cards for almost a decade, the report said.

Aarey is a forested patch in the city and was once connected to the adjoining Sanjay Gandhi National Park, said wildlife biologist Anand Pendharkar, chief executive officer of Sprouts, an organisation that focuses on wildlife conservation and awareness. Some parts of Aarey were declared an ecosensitive zone of the Park in 2016.

Maharashtra CM Directs Withdrawal of Cases Against Aarey Activists

Uddhav Thackeray had announced the withdrawal of cases against green activists last year in December, days after he took oath as the Chief Minister.

Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday directed the state Home department to withdraw cases registered against protesters last year for opposing felling of trees for a proposed metro car shed in Aarey Colony, a prime green lung of the city.

The decision was taken at the state cabinet meeting.

A tweet from the Chief Minister’s office said Thackeray has directed the state home department to begin the process of withdrawing the cases.

The request for withdrawal of cases was made at the cabinet meeting by the State Environment Minister Aaditya Thackeray, which was supported by Deputy CM Ajit Pawar and other ministers.

“I thank all the cabinet colleagues of the MVA government for prioritizing and realizing the importance of sustainable development and green governance and supporting such issues,” Aaditya Thackeray tweeted.

He said the protesters were citizens standing up for future of the planet.

“To hold them from stopping desired work was one thing but to press police charges was another. We can’t have cases against those who stand up for environment and forests,” he said in another tweet.

Uddhav Thackeray had announced the withdrawal of cases against green activists last year in December, days after he took oath as the Chief Minister.

Also read: ‘Metro Important’: SC Dismisses Appeal to Maintain Aarey Colony as Ecologically Sensitive Zone

Cases were registered after clashes broke out between the police and green activists opposing axing of trees by the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (MMRCL) in Aarey Colony last October for construction of a metro car shed for the Metro-3 line.

Police had booked at least 38 protesters under IPC sections 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharging duty), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from duty) and 143 (unlawful assembly).

Last month, the CM had asked the Mumbai Metro and MMRDA (Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority) officials to examine whether the proposed metro car shed can be shifted to Pahadi Goregaon area near Oshiwara.

‘Metro Important’: SC Dismisses Appeal to Maintain Aarey Colony as Ecologically Sensitive Zone

The apex court upheld the National Green Tribunal’s order on the matter.

New Delhi: Observing that the “metro is important” in congested Mumbai, the Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed an appeal against the National Green Tribunal order to exclude 407 acres in the green Aarey colony in suburban Mumbai as an Ecologically Sensitive Zone around the Sanjay Gandhi National Park.

The bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Abdul Nazeer has allowed the use of this land for the infrastructure and construction project.

This stretch of land in the Aarey colony has already been set aside by the state government to construct a metro rail shed. Last year, several trees were cut, causing widespread outrage.

In 2016, the Union environment ministry had ordered for the exclusion of 407 acres from the over 15,000 acres notified as an Ecologically Sensitive Zone (ESZ) around the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP).

The ministry had justified this order citing the metro shed project and existence of slums and high-rises on the boundary of SGNP.

“The ESZ size was reduced after following due procedure of law and any new construction is allowed as per zonal master plan,” the ministry had stated.

In fact, the Maharashtra government had told the ministry that “various stakeholder and the public requested for the ESZ reduction and to keep it to bare minimum.”

This order was challenged before the NGT. However, the NGT bench of chairperson Justice A.K. Goel and judicial member Justice S.P. Wangdi, with two expert members Nagin Nanda and Siddhanta Das, upheld the environment ministry’s order and said, “no further order is necessary”.

Also read: Ten Things to Know About Aarey and the Protests Surrounding it

Following this, an NGO named Vanashakti and its director Stalin Dayanand had appealed in the apex court against the NGT order.

In its appeal, Vanashakti had put forth that the NGT bench “summarily disposed” of the case with an ex-parte order on January 24. “NGT acted in complete violation of rules of natural justice in deciding the case without hearing any party,” the NGO said in its appeal.

It also alleged lapses in following the territorial jurisdiction. “The challenge was made before the NGT, western zone, in Pune, but the case was transferred to the NGT, principal bench, at New Delhi,” it added.

The NGO further said that the NGT order allowing construction within an ESZ would impact the entire biodiversity of the park. “NGT failed to consider that the excluded land is a heavily forested land that boasts of trees of indigenous forest species and has varied flora and fauna.”

It said the reduction in the ESZ area is completely against the spirit and purpose of National Wildlife Action Plan, 2002-2016 and the subsequent ESZ Guidelines of 2011.

“Construction will cause irreparable harm to the highly sensitive ecology of the region which harbours 1,300 species of flowering plants, 45 species of mammals, 43 species of reptiles, 300 species of birds and 150 species of butterflies.”

Also read: Indian Cities Have Been Reduced to Just Real Estate

Countering the state government’s submission that public had requested to reduce the ESZ, the NGO said that the new notification has negated objections submitted by a large number of citizens and restricted the scope of declaring an area as ESZ.

“It allows for setting up of all kinds of infrastructure projects (such as the Metro rail projects), commercial establishments, residential buildings, IT Parks including red category industries, in an ESZ area,” the NGO stated in the appeal.

Apart from the metro shed project, the 407 acres of land in Aarey is also supposed to be used in a slum redevelopment project to be spread over 90 acres.

New Mumbai Metro Chief Non-Committal on Car Shed in Aarey Colony

The project ran into controversy after Shiv Sena leaders opposed the construction of the shed.

Mumbai: The new chief of the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation, Ranjit Singh Deol, sounded non-committal on the future of the controversial car-shed in the green lung of the megapolis but is resolute in getting the ambitious Colaba-Seepz line completed on time.

The 33-km fully underground Colaba-Bandra-Seepz line has run into controversy after the then BJP-led government pushed ahead with the plan to have the car-shed built in the heart of Aarey Colony, one of the few green spaces of the city, against stiff opposition from the public and also from the then ruling ally Shiv Sena.

On his first day in office, Deol told PTI that his priority is to ensure timely completion of the ambitious line-3 but said he will thoroughly review the entire project first.

“The project faces many challenges but I don’t have in-depth knowledge about it as I have taken charge just today. I will have to first review the project. But my priority is to get the project completed on time,” Deol said.

When specifically asked about the future of the controversial car-shed project in Aarey, Deol sounded non-committal saying, “I have to review the entire project. But the priority is timely completion.”

It can be noted that the project ran into controversy after the Shiv Sena leaders led by Aditya Thackeray had opposed the construction of the car-shed in the run-up to the assembly polls as there was huge public opposition to the felling of trees.

Deol’s predecessor Ashwini Bhide came under flak for her defence of felling the trees in Aarey for the metro car shed.

As public opposition mounted the then Devendra Fadnavis government rushed to the Bombay high court, which allowed the project. But it was challenged in the Supreme Court, which also let the same but with riders as the colony is home to tens of hundreds of flora and fauna.

The project had already cost close to 2,141 trees.

The 33-km long fully underground Colaba-Bandra-Seepz metro-3 is among the most ambitious of the 13 metro lines planned up in the megapolis.

Deol was previously the vice-chairman and managing director of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation.

It can be noted that the junior Thackeray, who is also the present tourism and environment minister, had last year sought Bhide’s transfer for felling trees at the Aarey Colony.

Last December, the MMRC had claimed that the entire tunnelling for the 33-km corridor will be over by September 2020.

Apart from this, the corporation hopes to complete 70% of civil works and get the first rolling stock by this December, MMRC said in a statement.

The Advent of Environmental Issues in India’s Elections

Marginalised people suffer through the bulk of the effects of a changing climate, so it’s only rational that they vote for policies that will protect them from the consequent shifts in their livelihoods.

According to a new report, Japan, the Philippines and Germany were the three countries worst affected by events related to climate change in 2018. India ranks fifth, up nine rungs from #14 last year, which means the country has become more vulnerable. The report estimated India’s losses to be 2,081 lives and $37.8 billion in 2018.

By any yardstick, these figures are alarming – but they are not nearly as politically significant as they should be.

In 2018, and ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, a survey of 2.73 lakh people in 534 parliamentary constituencies found that the fraction of voters that consider drinking water to be an important issue increased from 12% in 2017 to 30% in 2018.

However, fewer people were interested in other issues. Another pre-poll survey with a little over 10,000 people indicated that water-related issues in general mattered to 1.5% of respondents while fully 0% were concerned about environmental degradation.

Anecdotal evidence also supports the view that most Indians don’t think about water and the environment – beyond the material effects on their lives – even as they contribute to environmental degradation. The air pollution in North and Northeast India comes to mind. Every winter, New Delhi’s air quality plunges to life-threatening levels, especially after the festival of Diwali. Many people react by pointing their fingers at farmers burning paddy stubble in Punjab and Haryana but those fingers should really be pointed at themselves.

In 2019, when the air quality index dived into the severe category, Sunita Narain, who heads the Centre for Science and Environment, wrote that crop-burning shared only a “minuscule” part of the blame, and that the indiscriminate use of firecrackers was principally at fault. On Diwali (October 27), PM2.5 levels jumped tenfold in parts of the national capital between 5 pm and 1 am.

On the other hand, there also appears to be some evidence to show that environmental issues is of imminent concern to voters, especially in Delhi, which goes to the polls next year. In another survey, nearly 45% of the sampled voters in Delhi said pollution is the city’s biggest problem “at the moment”.

They’re likely not alone in harbouring this sentiment. In the Maharashtra assembly elections that happened earlier this year, members of the BJP and the Shiv Sena lost in the state’s western districts, such as Kolhapur, Sangli and parts of Satara, recently ravaged by floods. In the drought-affected Vidarbha region, the BJP won only 29 of 62 seats despite the party’s dominance at the Centre as well as relatively higher popularity in the state – down from 44 in 2014. The Shiv Sena won only four seats in both elections.

Also read: In Western Maharashtra, the Possibility of a Man-Made Deluge

Significantly, former agriculture minister Anil Sukhdeorao Bonde lost to Devendra Bhuyar, a farmers’ leader. In Latur (rural), where the Congress party’s Dhiraj Deshmukh won, the ‘none of the above option’ received the second-most number of votes. These results can be traced to multiple roots but given the broadly similar problems affected the corresponding constituencies, environmental issues are quite likely to be one of them.

Mumbai, on the other hand, voted the other way. In spite of the strong protests to save the trees in Aarey colony, the BJP’s Vidya Thakur won from the Goregaon constituency. Only a few days earlier, the state’s BJP government had decided to fell 2,700 trees in the colony to make way for a metro shed. After the Shiv Sena came to power, its government issued orders to halt the project.

Marginalised people suffer through the bulk of the effects of a changing climate, so it’s only rational that they vote for policies that will protect them from the consequent shifts in the availability of resources and, more generally, of livelihood. Urban residents, especially of the middle class, are more addicted to ‘development’ and will prioritise that.

But on the flip side, the voices of the marginalised continue to be feeble in terms of affecting government policy, so unless a large section of the affluent and the middle-class really feels the heat of the climate emergency, cities are unlikely to want governments to change on the basis of environmental issues.

Amit Ranjan is a visiting research fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore.

Cases Against Aarey Activists To Be Withdrawn, Says New Maharashtra CM

Uddhav Thackeray reiterated that he was not stopping any metro project in Mumbai.

Mumbai: Cases registered against green activists who tried to stop the felling of trees in Mumbai’s Aarey Colony will be withdrawn, Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray announced on Sunday night.

Cases were registered after clashes broke out between the police and green activists opposing axing of trees by the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (MMRCL) in Aarey Colony in early October for construction of a metro car shed for the Metro-3 line.

“I have directed police officials to withdraw the cases registered against green activists who were protesting against chopping of trees in the Aarey forest area,” Thackeray told reporters.

Also watch: Watch | Save Aarey Campaign: Petitioners and Activists Answer Queries

The CM reiterated that he was not stopping any metro project in Mumbai.

After taking charge as the chief minister on November 29, Thackeray, who heads the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government, had announced stay on construction of the metro car shed project in the colony, a prime green lung of the city.

Police had booked at least 38 protesters under IPC sections 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharging duty), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from duty) and 143 (unlawful assembly).

Of them, 29 protesters, including six women, were arrested when some of them allegedly tried to obstruct the police personnel at Aarey from discharging their duty and manhandling them.

A sessions court had on October 6 granted conditional bail to 29 protesters.

Watch | Save Aarey Campaign: Petitioners and Activists Answer Queries

The Wire speaks to the petitioners and activists of the Save Aarey movement about the Mumbai high court’s stay order and the arrests that happened after Section 144 was imposed in the area.

The Wire speaks to the petitioners and activists of the Save Aarey movement about the Mumbai high court’s stay order and the arrests that happened after Section 144 was imposed in the area. They also spoke about the MMRCL ‘s decision to chose Aarey forest for the car shed construction and what the plan of action will be if further felling of trees takes place.

Also read: Ten Things to Know About Aarey and the Protests Surrounding it

Note: These interviews were taken on October 10 and 12.

Environment Ministry Says States Can Define What Land Constitutes a Forest

With well-established forest departments, states are better equipped “to understand their own forests and needs”, the Union ministry said.

New Delhi: The Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) of the environment ministry has clarified that states do not need permission from the Centre to define what constitutes unclassified land as forest, according to a report in the Hindu.

While the liberty to define land that has not already been classified as a forest by the Centre has been the prerogative of states since 1996, recent reports over the ministry of environment, forest and climate change’s drafts to evolve a legal definition of forests had cast doubts about the ministry’s efforts. However, the FAC’s clarification has put an end to such speculation.

The FAC, which comprises of independent experts and officials in the Centre’s forestry division, said that with well-established forest departments, states were better equipped than the Union ministry “to understand their own forests and needs, and should frame criteria for their forests… criteria so finalised by a state need not be subject to approval by MoEF&CC”.

The ministry’s meeting records noted that the issue had come up for discussion because the Uttarakhand government had put forth a set of criteria defining forest land and asked the ministry for its opinion.

A Supreme Court judgement in 1996 re-defined the meaning of forests to include all areas with natural forests irrespective of their ownership as well as those that came under the ‘dictionary’ meaning of forest. Under the Godavarman judgement, states were also directed to form expert committees to identify forests as defined and file reports.

Also read: Environment Ministry Defines Forests, Legally

Speaking to the Hindu, Director General of Forests and Special Secretary in the ministry Siddhanta Das said that not all states had submitted the necessary criteria. According to him, forests defined under this criteria  constituted about 1% of the country’s forests and once so defined would be known as ‘deemed forests.’

Das also noted that given that almost 16 different types of forests existed across the country, an all-encompassing definition of forests wasn’t viable.

Additionally, given that states tend to claim helplessness in preventing encroachment on a patch of land on the grounds that it hadn’t been classified as a forest – as in the case of the felling of trees in Mumbai’s Aarey Colony – the decision to lay the onus of defining forests with the states is significant

Sushant Agarwal has previously noted that the Union environment ministry had attempted to distance itself from the 2016 draft of the National Forest Policy that had floated the concept of a National Community Forest Management (CFM) Mission.

The 2018 draft then, in reference to community conserved areas, mentioned the northeast and had stated that, “the State Forest Departments will also play proactive role in preparation of working plan and working schemes and management plans of protected areas in the North-East in totality.”

A close examination of the State of Forests Report 2017 showed that by counting plantations, which are no substitute for natural forests, as “forest cover” and calling it a net gain in India’s forest cover, the government was attempting to mask the extensive deforestation that had taken place.

Also read: The Centre’s Exclusionist View of Conservation Is Increasingly Counterproductive

Under these parameters, states like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Odisha and Telangana recorded a net increase in forest cover. The report further signalled that the increase in forest cover could be attributed to the conservation measures taken up by the government and technological advancement in satellite imaging technology. An improvement in technological advancement in mapping technology, however, does not entail an increase in forest cover, but merely that the government is able to more accurately map the existing forest cover.