Several politicians and activists, including the BJP’s ruling ally and Shiv Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray on Friday, 4 October reacted to the Bombay HC verdict on cutting of trees at Mumbai’s Aarey colony for the construction of Metro car shed and the reported felling of trees being initiated by authorities at the site.
The Bombay HC refused to declare Aarey Colony a forest area and also declined to quash a BMC decision allowing felling of over 2,600 trees in the suburban green zone for the construction of a metro car shed.
Thackeray took to Twitter to call the Aarey controversy “shameful and disgusting” and pointed out that the deforestation at the Mumbai colony for the construction of the Metro car shed stands against everything India said about the environment at the recent United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
“The vigour with which the @MumbaiMetro3 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?” Thackeray tweeted.
“Many environmentalists and even many local Shiv Sena members from the vicinity have tried stopping this. More so the increased police presence and the way this deforestation is happening, @MumbaiMetro3 is destroying everything India said at the UN @UNEnvironment @UN,” he said.
Several others took to Twitter to react to the Bombay HC verdict by a bench of Chief Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice Bharati Dangre, that dismissed all petitions filed by NGOs and environment activists opposing the felling of trees in Aarey Colony in Goregaon, a major green lung of the metropolis.
Several activists and reports also claimed that tree-cutting already began at Aarey despite the rule stating that tree cutting should begin only 15 days after the authorities grant permission for it.
(With inputs from PTI)
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