No more tree felling at Aarey for metro: State to SC

MUMBAI: No more trees are required to be felled in Aarey Colony for the Mumbai Metro Line project, the Maharashtra government told the Supreme Court on Friday.

The affidavit of the state government came in response to an order passed by the court on December 20 in a suo motu matter seeking information on whether the state had any proposal to cut further trees at Aarey, which serves as a green lung for Mumbai.

Appearing for the state, senior advocate Maninder Singh along with Aaditya A Pande pointed out that the state does not intend to fell any more trees and referred to a report received from the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MMRCL) on January 7.

The bench comprising justice Abhay S Oka and justice KV Viswanathan went on to direct, “We make it clear that the Tree Authority of MCGM will not grant permission for felling of trees in Aarey Colony.” The court permitted the Tree Authority to process applications for tree felling with a rider that no permission will be granted without the nod from the court.

To be sure, in October 2019 and August 2022, the court directed status quo following which the MMRCL approached the top court for permission to fell trees. Besides the suo motu petition pending since October 2019, the court is also considering a set of appeals filed by activists and NGOs challenging an order of the Bombay high court in 2019 which doubted the ‘forest’ tag for Aarey.

Senior advocate Anitha Shenoy appearing for one of the petitioners informed the court that the court had directed a response to be filed by the state and not MMRCL. She stated that MMRCL had in the past informed the court that there is no further proposal for tree felling with regard to construction of Metro Car Shed.

The court has in the past passed several orders to ensure that the tree cover in Aarey is protected and is not in excess of the number required for the project. In April 2023, the court came down heavily against the MMRCL for felling trees in excess of the permission to fell 84 trees granted by the Tree Authority. The top court had slapped a penalty of 10 lakh on MMRCL.

In addition, the top court had directed the Conservator of Forests in Maharashtra to submit a report indicating the status of compliance of its orders for afforestation and transplantation of trees passed from time to time. The bench had even directed a team of IIT Bombay to prepare a report on the compliance of its direction by visiting the site.

This report was filed in June last year while the Conservator of Forests also submitted its report in October 2023. These reports will be considered on the next date of hearing.

Stalin D, director of Vanashakti and petitioner, welcomed the apex court order to extend its protection to Aarey. “Now we hope that the government doesn’t hoodwink the Supreme Court to get approvals for development projects. The government should also in all its might try to protect the lungs of the city,” he said.

While calling the order “very encouraging”, Amrita Bhattacharjee, one of the petitioners and environmental campaigner, said the state should clarify that there won’t be any clearing across the forest area.

“The Government of Maharashtra was supposed to respond and say if further tree felling will happen in Aarey. But on behalf of the state, MMRCL has filed an affidavit and said that for Metro Car Depot no further tree felling will happen. The government is silent on the rest of Aarey and they didn’t give any response.”

Inputs by Shreya Jachak