SAVE AAREY FOREST PROTEST:

1. Aarey Forest (also known as Aarey Milk Colony and Aarey Colony) is a rich urban forest which is within the eco sensitive zone of Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP). It is classified as mixed moist deciduous type forest. It acts as a buffer between SGNP and the city, being one of the few green spaces (spread over 2000 acres) left in Mumbai.

2. The protest started against the proposal by the BMC’s Tree Authority to fell and transplant 2,646 trees in Aarey Colony for a Metro car depot of the Metro 3 line. The citizen-driven campaign — Save Aarey — gained political momentum as the state goes to polls this year.

3. Residents and environmentalists fear that the car depot will destroy biodiversity and pave the way for further development and land exploitation in Aarey.On August 29, the proposal for cutting trees was passed by a vote. Eight votes (four BJP corporators, three experts and one NCP corporator) were in support of felling the trees, while six votes (all from Shiv Sena) were against the move. Two Congress corporators had walked out of the meeting before the voting began.

4. The protesters are mainly residents of the area and environmentalists who feel the felling of trees could pose a threat to the biodiversity. It has also got support from some celebrities and politicians too.

5. A division bench of the Bombay High Court on Friday ruled on four petitions while refusing to declare Aarey Colony a forest and declined to quash BMC-appointed Tree Authority’s decision to fell over 2600 trees in the area.The court also took note of the MMRCL submission that the authority had already planted 20,900 trees in the Sanjay Gandhi National Park. “This establishes that about seven times the number of trees to be felled have been replaced by planting of saplings,” the court said.