Aarey Protest LIVE: In a victory for green activists, the Supreme Court today ordered status quo in the Aarey tree felling case, ordering the Maharashtra government not to cut down any more trees till the next hearing on October 21. Observing that it “appeared Aarey was a forest at some point of time”, the court asked the state government to submit a status report on the number of trees felled so far and the compulsory afforestation by the Mumbai metro.
The court was hearing petitions by activists who are protesting against the felling of over 2,600 trees in Aarey colony for the construction of a Mumbai Metro car shed.
A group of law students of a Noida-based college had on Sunday approached Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, seeking the court’s immediate intervention to stop felling of trees in Mumbai.
The letter sent to the CJI by Rishav Ranjan on behalf a student delegation on Sunday comes two days after the Bombay High Court 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 Bombay HC had on Friday rejected a plea against the axing of trees, and the BMC had soon after started chopping trees down under the cover of darkness, leading to massive protests. A group of activists who protested against the decision were detained and arrested by the police.
Celebrities, politicians — including the BJP’s Maharashtra ally Shiv Sena — also slammed the government for the move.
Under fire over the decision to destroy what is popularly known as Mumbai’s ‘green lung’, Mumbai Metro chief Ashwini Bhide on Sunday termed the move “inevitable”. Taking to Twitter, Bhide said: “Sometimes to construct something new destruction becomes inevitable but it also paves the way for new life and new creation.”
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