Aarey Colony

Bal Thackeray memorial

Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray

City and Industrial Development Corporation

CIDCO

A foundation stone for the memorial of Bal Thackeray

Mumbai Metro Railway Corporation Ltd

MMRCL

A file photo of the Priyadarshini Park in Aurangabad.

The party fought the decision to fell trees at, but the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation, which it controls, wants to chop down 1,000 trees for ain Priyadarshini Park.The first decisiontook after he assumed charge on November 29 was to halt work on a Metro car shed at Aarey Colony that would require the felling of many trees. However, Shiv Sena-governed Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) is all set to cut around 1,000 trees for a memorial of the party’s founder, the late Bal Thackeray, in Aurangabad’s Priyadarshini Park.Priyadarshini Park is dense wood spread across 17 acres in the middle of Aurangabad and apart from serving as a green lung it is used for walking, jogging and other leisure activities. According environmental activists the park is home to 70 species of birds, 40 species of butterflies and various reptiles and small mammals.However, the AMC, which the Sena has controlled for the past 25 years, has planned to build a massive memorial to Thackeray, comprising an amphitheatre, a museum and a food court. It will be spread over three acres and will cost around Rs 61 crore to build.Sunny Khinwsara, a lawyer for petitioners who have filed a PIL against the project before the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court, said, “As per AMC’s own project report there is a need to cut at least 1,000 trees. However, AMC’s affidavit in court is silent on the number of trees needed to be cut for the project. It just says ’minimum number’ of trees will be cut.” In fact, in an advertisement published by AMC in local newspapers, it had invited tenders for the cutting of 330 trees, he added.He said, “In our counter-affidavit we have pointed out that the land doesn’t belong to AMC. It has been taken on lease from) and the lease conditions clearly state that AMC will maintain a public garden there.”He also claimed that the condition of the park has deteriorated since it was taken over by AMC from CIDCO in 2016, and that more than 1,200 trees have either been cut or dried up, which the AMC itself has admitted in its affidavit. In the 1980s CIDCO handed over the land, which was then barren, to the Mahatma Gandhi Mission, which converted it into a lush green park over the years by planting more than 10,000 trees. The court will now hear the case on December 16.Aurangabad mayor Nandkumar Ghodele said, “We will ensure that no trees are cut while building the memorial and will abide by directions given by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray ji.”Vijay Diwan, an environmental activist from Aurangabad, said, “Now the question is whether Thackeray will intervene and save trees in Aurangabad just as he has taken steps to save trees in Aarey Colony.”Though the Sena, especially Yuva Sena chief Aditya Thackeray, was at the forefront of opposing the felling of trees at Aarey, the BMC’s Tree Authority, which cleared their axing, is controlled by the Sena.After Bombay High Court lifted the stay on the cutting of trees in Aarey in October, the), which is building the Metro III between Colaba and SEEPZ, moved swiftly and cut thousands of trees overnight.Following this, Sena’s mouthpiece Samana published a strongly worded editorial condemning the decision to axe the trees, calling it dictatorial. It read, “Trees don’t have voting rights, so is it justified to give orders to murder them? What kind of justice is this? If there is a fire in a forest abroad, then people cry because of it, but the whole forest is being murdered in front of our eyes and neither the prime minister got emotional nor was the Chief Minister worried about it.”The overnight axing of the trees led to massive protests by activists, some of whom were arrested by the Mumbai police. But after ordering a halt to work on the Metro car shed, the new Sena-NCP-Congress government announced it would scrap cases registered against the protestors.