Metro-3 car shed

Shraddha Kapoor joins protest to save Aarey forest 00:43

Aarey forest

Mithi River

NEERI

Aarey trees

Protest held against the Aarey project last week; (right) Mumbai Mirror’s coverage of the Tree Authority’s decision

Bombay High Court

Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited

MMRCL

Protests against the cutting of Aarey trees.

“If the Aarey is concretised, excess rain water will run off into Mithi, leading to flooding at airport,” said a report that was part of the dossier given to all Tree Authority members before last week’s meeting. Nobody even mentioned this report.BMC’s Tree Authority -- which last week showed an unholy haste in clearing a proposal to axe 2,702 trees at Aarey to make way for a-- ignored an environmental assessment report that warned that reclaiming forest land at Aarey could lead to floods at the international airport in the event of heavy rains.In a report submitted in May 2015 by a state-government appointed technical committee, two of the experts had said that that if theis concretised, excess rain water will run off into the, leading to massive flooding in Chakala and at the international airport.The note prepared by Dr Rakesh Kumar, director, National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (), and Professor Shyam Asolekar, who is was a part of a dossier handed over to all 19 members of the Tree Authority 48 hours before last Thursday’s meeting that cleared cutting ofwithout any debate.The two experts had pointed out that the proposed site of Metro-3 car shed is right next to the Mithi River’s catchment area. “If the car shed is constructed, the water retention capacity of the plot will be lost,” the note said.Last week’s Tree Authority meeting has come in for flak for rushing through the proposal to cut the trees. Two tree experts, who were appointed to the Tree Authority following aorder, have since resigned, alleging they were tricked into voting in the favour of cutting trees. The two have said they were given the impression that the voting was for adjourning the meeting. But once the voting was over, it was declared that the proposal to cut 2702 trees at Aarey had been cleared.The proposed car shed at Aarey has become a bone of contention between green activists and the). While the government seems hell bent on constructing the car shed at Aarey, the green activists have questioned why an alternate site at Kanjurmarg, which will lead to a lot less damage to the environment, is not being considered.The two experts had noted that all of Aarey is a contiguous green area and pieces of it can’t be hived off for commercial projects. “The possibility of such development is likely to break the sanctity of the place. This area will in the long term provide immense service in terms of biodiversity,” their note says.Their note also spoke about Aarey’s rich bio-diversity, being home to leopards and other wildlife. It points out to the discovery of a species of scorpion ‘Lychas Aareyyensis’ first found in Aarey and named after it.