800 acres of Mumbai's Aarey declared forest

Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday announced the scrapping of Aarey metro car shed and said the project will now come up at Kanjurmarg here. In a webcast, Thackeray said the project will be shifted to a government land in Kanjurmarg and no cost will be incurred for the purpose. "The land will be available at zero rate," he said.

He said the building which has come up in Aarey forest will be utilised for some other public purpose. "About Rs 100 crore expenditure was incurred for the purpose and it won't go waste," he said. Thackeray said the government had earlier declared 600acre of Aarey land as forest but now it has been revised to 800 acre. There will be no infringement on rights of tribals in the Aarey forest, he added.

"Biodiversity in Aarey needs to be to conserved and protected. Nowhere is there an 800-acre jungle in an urban setup. Mumbai has a natural forest cover," he said. Cases last year against citizens and environmentalists who protested against the Aarey project and felling of trees in that area have been withdrawn, he said.

A day after taking oath as Maharashtra chief minister, Thackeray had announced a stay on construction of metro car shed in Mumbai's green lung Aarey Colony, where strong protests had erupted in October last year against the cutting of trees for the work.

The then BJP-led government in Maharashtra had come under fire from green activists in October when more than 2,000 trees were felled for a car shed, to be constructed in Aarey Colony adjacent to the Sanjay Gandhi National Park. The Sena, then the junior partner in the Devendra Fadnavis government, had opposed the felling of trees.

The Bombay High Court on October 4 had refused to declare Aarey Colony a forest and declined to quash the Mumbai municipal corporation's decision to allow felling of over 2,600 trees in the green zone to set up a metro car shed. Hours after the court gave a go-ahead, tree were cut at night, fueling outrage and protests.