Hours after the Bombay High Court dismissed petitions opposing tree-felling in Aarey Colony in north Mumbai, a prime green lung of the city, for Metro work, activists alleged that authorities have started hacking trees.
Of over 2,600 trees which are to be felled, 200 had been cut by Friday night, activists alleged.
Videos of tree-felling went viral on social media, though it could not be confirmed from Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation officials if indeed tree cutting for the planned metro car shed in Aarey had begun. But the site of the proposed car shed saw heavy police deployment as hundreds of people gathered there late Friday night to stop trees from being hacked. According to reports, several activists were detained Friday night after they tried to stop the authorities.
Several tweets lambasted the Devendra Fadnavis government in Maharashtra as well as the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation over the issue. Aam Aadmi Party leader Preeti Menon Sharma said tree cutting was a violation of the poll code in force for the October 21 Assembly elections.
Shiv Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray on Saturday extended his support to activists opposing the cutting of trees. In a series of tweets, Thackeray termed cutting of trees as a "shameful and disgusting" act which was carried out "in cover of night".
"The vigour with which the Mumbai Metro is slyly and swiftly cutting down an ecosystem in Aarey is shameful and disgusting. How about posting these officials in PoK, giving them charge to destroy terror camps rather than trees?" he said.
-with inputs from PTI
