A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) contesting the BMC's notice asking for recommendations and objections for felling 177 trees at Aarey Colony to build a car shed for Metro Line 3 has been filed in the Bombay High Court. The Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (MMRCL) filed a request for permission to cut down 84 trees in accordance with the Supreme Court's relief (SC).
Following the MMRCL's application, the BMC's Tree Authority published a notice on January 12 asking for comments and recommendations regarding the proposal to cut down 177 trees. According to the petition, which was submitted by activist Zoru Bathena, the Tree Authority's notification violates the Supreme Court's judgement from November 2022, which only permitted the destruction of 84 trees.
The SC took suo moto notice of the tree-felling in Aarey in October 2019 and ordered the authorities to stop. According to Mr. Bathena's complaint, "The
BMC notice dated January 12, 2023, is for the removal of 177 trees, having a different set of tree ID numbers compared to the MMRCL's application, which was only for 84." Since 2014, the Metro car shed project in Aarey has been the subject of debate.
Environmentalists have protested the indiscriminate tree-cutting in the region, which they assert to be a forest area. The auto shed was moved to the suburb of Kanjurmarg after the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government took office in 2019. The MVA's ruling was overturned by the Eknath Shinde-led administration in June 2022.
