Mumbai metro authorities and the government declined to comment.
Mumbai's Aarey Colony is back in focus after actor Alia Bhatt became the latest celebrity to join the voices that have called for the relocation of the metro train garage in the green patch adjoining Sanjay Gandhi National Park.
The vast green expanse in the middle of suburban Mumbai will lose 3,500 trees to make way for a car shed for Mumbai's newest infrastructure project, the Metro network.
The car shed will come up on 33 hectares which is roughly 3 per cent of the entire land of Aarey Colony. While the government says there is no alternative site, citizens and activists disagree with that assumption.
The 240 Adivasi families who have had to shift from the sprawling Aarey to cramped concrete structures for the construction of the car shed are helpless and regret the relocation. "Instead of seeing the wildlife up close and personal, I now have to watch them on TV," said 55-year-old Lakshmi Padvi. "Our trees are gone. Everything is gone. We are nothing without our trees," the former Aarey resident added.
Lending support to the citizens voice against the plan is Shiv Sena leader Aditya Thackeray. The 27-year-old politician says he will approach the Chief Minister to reconsider this plan, saying Aarey is important to Mumbai residents. "I will request the Chief Minister to consider that the BMC and the corporators of the city have rejected the car shed in Aarey. Just last week we have rejected a proposal to cut down 3,070 trees in Aarey by MMRCL and we hope the Chief Minister listens to the voice of Mumbaikars," Mr Thackeray told NDTV.
While the debate over the construction of the Metro garage in one of Mumbai's last surviving protected green spaces, Aarey Colony, has been about development and environment, residents of Aarey Colony say that debate is wrongly structured. They add that they will approach every forum possible to shift the car shed from the area while maintaining that they support the construction of a Metro without damaging the environment.
Residents of Aarey Colony say that debate, about development and environment, is wrongly structured.
Activists also add that the government has refused to divulge plans on the replanting and transplanting of the trees that will have to be uprooted or cut down to make way for the car shed.
Sunil Dadhe, an Right to Information applicant told NDTV, "I had enquired how many trees were planted from 2008 to 2015 and how many are still alive. They misguided me and did not share information."
Metro authorities and the government declined to comment. Residents are now fighting a legal battle to prove that Aarey is a forest even with the presence of a large number of plant and animal species. The final decision on whether Aarey is actually a forest on not will come from the National Green Tribunal. But irrespective of which way that decision goes activists hope that to address the absolutely essential need of mass transport systems like the Metro, the government will not allow 3,000 trees to be chopped down.