forest

Aarey Milk Colony

Metro rail car shed

Sanjay Gandhi National Park

Borivali

Greater Bombay Milk Scheme

NGO

Metro line III

Colaba

Bandra

Seepz

Mumbai Metro Railway Corporation

Kalina

MMRC

Kanjurmarg

From cats to civets, Aarey bio-reserve is home to all

Greens get the government’s goat again, unearth an official letter which says Aarey land was transferred to thedepartment.Environmental activists have upturned the state’s long-held contention that, which is being considered for raising a, is a green zone by arguing that almost all of it is in fact forestland — one with theatIf they are adjudged to be right, then no inch of the land can be used for construction or commerce under the Forest Conservation Act, 1980.Their assertion is based on a 37-year-old internal memo of the forest department which says that barring 575 hectares, the entire Aarey land of 2,000 hectares or 20 sq km had been transferred from Aarey, known then as, to the forest department in 1969.The memo, written in 1980 by divisional manager of Forest Development Corporation of Maharashtra to the regional manager, was procured recently under the Right to Information Act by environmentalist D Stalin, whoseVansant is at the forefront of the campaign against the shed proposed on the wooded land.Stalin said the activists will spare no effort to uncover the truth about the land’s reservation “which has been so cleverly hidden” for nearlyfour decades. “Going by the evidence it is a clear example of how the fence is eating the farm,” he said.The proposed car shed for the fully undergroundfromtotohas faced steely resistance from citizen and activist groups since it involves axing around 2,300 trees on a 30-hectare plot at Aarey which is being sought to build the shed.Activists claim denuding the land of the trees will damage the region’s biodiversity permanently. The National Green Tribunal is hearing their case against the state’s car shed plan, and has for now stayed construction activity within Aarey. “It is very sad and intriguing that the forest department remained silent on this for over two years in a court of law,” Stalin said.Aarey Milk Colony’s chief executive officer Nathu Rathod said, “The Aarey Milk Colony land is in possession of the state dairy development department since the 1950s, but I will need to check the records whether it was transferred to forest department or not, and that will be possible only on Wednesday.”When Mirror tried to contact forest department officials to seek comment on the activists’ claim, we witnessed elaborate buck-passing. Forest secretary Vikas Kharge directed us to SGNP director Anwar Ahmad, who pointed us to assistant conservator of forests, D J Singh, who did not respond any of our calls and text messages.The activists, meanwhile, say they do not comprehend why the, the project’s implementing authority, rejected their suggestion for alternative sites for the car shed.The activists had proposed plots of land atand Kanjurmarg.rejected the Kalina land citing that its shape was unsuitable and that it belonged to the University of Mumbai. Theplot was rejected on the grounds that it is marshy and caught in litigation of ownership.-----------------------------------------------------------According to a study carried out by ecologists Rajesh Sanap and Zeeshan Mirza, Aarey Colony is home to 76 species of birds, 86 species of butterflies, 13 species of amphibians, 38 varieties of reptiles, 19 varieties of spiders and 34 different types of wild flowers. The study also found that Aarey has big cats like leopards and other animals like spotted deer, civets, Sambars, barking deer, rusty spotted cat and jungle cat. Activists have said all of these will be affected if a Metro car shed comes up at the site.