A picture of a hacked tree with "we mourn our trees", "butchered in their prime" and "funeral procession" written on it with the time and place of the procession, was passed around by citizens of south Mumbai to protest against the felling of trees to make way for the metro, and sure enough a group of people collected around the hacked trees.

Alongside large pictures of beautiful old banyan trees was a stretcher on which a log of wood was placed covered in white sheet. Round pots with aggarbattis in them and chants of "ram naam satya hai" resounded as the procession crossed Mantralay.

"With profound grief we convey the passing of a large number of Mumbai's giant, decades-old, iconic trees. These lifelong friends of ours will be deeply mourned and forever loved, remembered and missed by our children and grandchildren. So we have organised the last rites of these trees," Zoru Bathena, a protestor, said.

Yasmeen, president of a market in Churchgate area where quite a few trees have been hacked, said, "I don't understand why this world is debating cow slaughter while everyone should be discussion the hacking of these 200 year old trees. We depend on these trees for our own survival."

Other protestors expressed hope saying that they still feel that with protests they will be able to tell the government that axing the trees was not even an option.

"We are not against metro. We understand that it is needed for the city. All we want is that these trees should be transported wholly and then replaced back here after the project is complete if possible," said one of the protestors.

There are 5000 trees that are being axed by the metro authorities for construction of 33 stations along the Churchgate SEEPZ route. The protestors had earlier gone to the court, which had imposed a stay for sometime, however it was ultimately lifted. The metro authorities had claimed that each day of stay was costing them crores of rupees, and they were behind schedule already as work will almost be stopped during the monsoon season.

Many onlookers saw the procession and prayed for the departed soul the way they would have done when a human being is taken for cremation. Except here it ended on a bitter note.

When the protestors moved outside the Mantralay, police woke up to the commotion and asked the procession to be stopped around Churchgate. When the protestors refused, a commotion ensued and police could be seen running away with the stretcher and later escorted the protestors to the police station. However no case was registered against the protestors.

"Police gave us some tea and asked us to go home," Zoru said.

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