The Wire
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.
The Supreme Court said this in response to a PIL filed by a Mumbai law student along with a letter addressed to CJI Ranjan Gogoi.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday said it is not stopping the construction of the Metro shed project in Mumbai’s prominent green lung Aarey Colony, where protests were held against cutting of trees for the work.
A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Deepak Gupta sought a status report with pictures on the plantation, transplantation and felling of trees in the Aarey colony area of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the civic body BMC, assured the bench that no further tree felling is being done in Aarey colony and complete status quo is being maintained following the apex court’s last order.
The top court posted the matter for further hearing in November.
The apex court had earlier decided to register as PIL a letter addressed to Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi by law student Rishav Ranjan seeking a stay on cutting of trees.
The Bombay high court had on October 4 refused to declare Aarey Colony a forest and declined to quash the Mumbai municipal corporation’s decision to allow felling of over 2,600 trees in the green zone to set up a metro car shed.
The letter states,”As we write this letter to you Mumbai authorities continue to kill the lungs of Mumbai i.e Aarey forest by clearing of trees near Mithi river bank and according to news reports 1,500 trees have already been cleared by authorities.
“Not only this but our friends are put in jail who were peacefully organising a vigil against acts of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) with Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC) at the site,” the letter said.
The student requested the Supreme Court “to exercise its epistolary jurisdiction to protect Aarey without getting into technicalities as there was no time for preparation of a proper appeal petition and cover the scars of these young activists who are responsible citizens standing for serious environmental concerns”.
It also said that students have moved the apex court as the Bombay high court rejected the bail plea of 29 activists who had participated in the “peaceful vigil” against the tree-felling and have been detained by Mumbai Police.
The letter has alleged that the student-activists were abused and manhandled by the Mumbai Police which has booked them for offences of ‘assault on a public servant to deter him from discharging his duty’ and ‘unlawful assembly’ under the IPC.
According to the letter, Aarey forest is located adjacent to the Sanjay Gandhi National Park and has five lakh trees. The trees were proposed to be cut for Mumbai metro-3 project and specifically for construction of a car shed, it said and added the high court refused to recognise Aarey as a forest or declare it as an ecological sensitive issue because of jurisdictional limits.
The police had earlier imposed Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code in Aarey, restricting movement and gathering of groups, and cordoned off the area.
(PTI)
The remark surfaced during the hearing of a PIL opposing the felling of 2,600 trees in Aarey colony for a metro depot.
Mumbai: Amid a raging row over felling of trees for a metro car shed, the Bombay high court on Monday quipped how the government would manage ecology when it cannot handle the national economy with best resources at its disposal.
The remark was made by a division bench of Chief Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice Bharati Dangre while hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) opposing the felling of over 2,600 trees in Aarey colony, a green belt in suburban Goregaon, to make way for a car shed for the Metro III project.
The PIL has been filed by environmental activist Zoru Bathena, challenging a decision taken by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) tree authority on August 29 to allow the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (MMRCL) to cut 2,646 trees in Aarey area.
Bathena’s counsel Janak Dwarkadas, on Monday, argued that the tree authority’s decision suffers from “non-application of mind” and was taken in “haste” without following provisions laid down under the Trees Act.
“The main object of the civic body’s tree authority is to preserve and protect the trees and green cover in the city. Instead, it is mechanically granting permissions,” he said. “This is not a rational decision taken by the authority. The decision was taken in haste as the authority wanted to grant the approval before the code of conduct for the assembly elections comes into force,” Dwarkadas added.
The assembly poll schedule for Maharashtra was announced on September 21 and elections will be held on October 21.
Bathena’s counsel said that while the metro project was important and in public interest, the city’s green cover was equally important if not more. The bench, after hearing Dwarkadas’s arguments, said the development versus environment issue was “vexed” and that it would add another point to the petitioner’s contentions.
Also read: Mumbai’s Aarey Area Is Government Land, Not Forest: Devendra Fadnavis
“With all the best resources at their disposal if the government cannot manage the national economy then how can they manage the ecology,” Chief Justice Nandrajog said. “They (government) have the best economists working for them but still something is lacking,” he added.
Dwarkadas pointed out to the court that the BMC’s tree authority had ignored the recommendations submitted by two experts on its panel. “If the tree authority is giving approval against the opinion of the experts on its panel then reasons for doing so should be recorded,” he argued.
The senior counsel said soon after the approval was granted, one of the experts from the authority, Shashirekha Kumar, resigned claiming most of the recommendations submitted by her and the other experts were not considered by the panel.
Dwarkadas said that the authority, in its over 900-page proposal granting permission to MMRCL, did not even record the objections raised by the petitioner and over one lakh common citizens during the two public hearings conducted by the authority in October last year and in July this year.
The bench will continue hearing arguments on the issue on Tuesday.
The authority approved the felling of 2,185 trees and transplanting (uprooting trees from the original spot and replanting them at an alternate spot) 461 trees from the area, considered as Mumbai’s major green lung. The tree authority’s approval is mandatory for felling of more than 20 trees at a time at any place in the financial capital.
The authority has a total of 19 members at present, including the BMC commissioner. Of these, five members are independent experts nominated by the BMC as per its own rules and the HC’s previous orders.
According to the petition, the August 29 proposal to hack trees was approved by a majority of 8:6 members (the civic commissioner did not vote). Two corporators, who are members of the panel, walked out of the meeting over differences with the decision, while two independent experts were absent, the plea said.
A large number of environmental activists and common citizens are protesting the proposed hacking of trees in Aarey area, which is home to tribal, hundreds of wildlife species, unique flora and fauna.
