Cutting 2,700 trees for Mumbai Metro project ignites protests

Doha: India’s Supreme Court ordered a halt to the felling of trees in an area frequented by leopards and vulnerable birds, after the plan to clear the area and build a depot for Mumbai Metro Rail Corp. ignited protests and 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 about 2,700 trees marked for clearance late on Friday, within a few hours of a Bombay High Court ruling that the area, known as Aarey in suburban Mumbai, wasn’t a forest.

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.

By early Sunday, more than 1,500 trees had been cut down, India Today reported on its website. That’s more than 50% of the target. The court on Monday ordered the release of all protesters who had been arrested.

"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.”