Located in Mumbai, Aarey forest which has recently hit the media storm does not have only trees but a whole ecosystem with many endangered species and wildlife corridor and any effort to disturb it will cause a devastating effect on the ecology of the surroundings. “Cutting down these trees is not just an issue of the present, it will cast its shadow on the future of Mumbai. With the rate of pollution increasing throughout the country, trees and plants serve as a safety blanket for the people, say experts. World Health Organisation (WHO) has already warned that increasing air pollution is already affecting the health of people. “Aarey forests are known as the ‘lungs’ of Mumbai hence cutting down these trees only means depriving Mumbai of a vital organ that has been shielding it from increasing air pollution,” said a Chest Expert at Lucknow’s King George Medical University. There is no denying the fact “Aarey forest is a habitat of its own. It is home to many animals and in a way is a vital part of the ecosystem. Felling down these trees will deprive many animals of their shelter. If the animals living in Aarey forest are deprived of their homes, they will eventually enter the areas that are inhabited by humans, which will put the lives of locals in fatal danger” Experts pointed out. “We have already seen a lot of animals moving out to the urban areas after their natural habitat had been devastated in the name of urbanization”, A group of Environmentalists referred to a series of incidents where monkeys have become a big menace in the cities. A few months earlier, protests were held in Mumbai to criticise the exploitation of wetlands and felling down of mangroves for ambitious construction schemes and now only Apex Court has come to the rescue of Cutting of Aarey forest trees till the date of the next hearing.
The government wanted to cut off this forest for the construction of a metro car shed. The people in Aaery colony protested this because Aaery forest is the last green lungs of Mumbai. Tree authority, under Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), decided on 30 August 2019 that the tree in Aarey should be cut. The decision was taken by the claim that they would cut 2,700 trees out of 400,000. In which 2240 trees would be cut and around 465 trees will be transplanted and as compensation, they would plant the 3 times of the trees being cut in Aarey, somewhere else.
The idea of cutting such a big chunk of trees from Aarey Forest found mixed reactions with many- in particular- youth suggesting a sacrifice has to be made at the cost of urbanisation while others felt that this cutting of forest was inappropriate & must be stopped.
Shivangi Narayan, a bank employee was of the view “deforestation itself has many disadvantages and people believed that if once the construction process starts in a part of the forest, it would steeply take away all the forest for further development and construction”. An Engineering student Shubhangi believes that the compensation and other promises made by the government would never be filled because they have observed it in many other similar situations. Will it be justified if someone puts something important at stake say to sell a kidney to buy an iPhone in the name of making way for modernization? Some unbelievably naive yet esteemed people believe that doing the same with Mumbai is sane. Mumbai’s vital organ- “The Green Lungs” has been axed for an MMRC (Mumbai Metro) because the government believes the “benefits of metro far outweigh the trees” and the news is busy rambling about the political aspects of the same. What is the point of development if the present or the future generations won’t live to see it at all? On one hand, we’re living in the time when even kids are screaming their lungs out campaigning about climate change(Greta), there is pollution, global warming, variety of animals getting extinct in general, the frequent flood plagues places specifically Mumbai in this case and all of these issues have a collective solution- afforestation /reforestation; on the other hand, we’re paving the way for them by cutting endless trees. There is no harm in development but we have to stop putting our present at stake for a better future and figure out our priorities.
