Aarey Milk Colony is under serious threat from the MMRDA's proposal to use part of it for metro services. But people are not going to give it up without a fight.
Spread over 2,000 acres, the Aarey Milk Colony in Goregaon, Mumbai’s western suburbs, is one of the few green spaces left in India’s densest city. Ecologists say it is home to 76 species of birds, 86 species of butterflies, 13 species of amphibians, 38 different types of reptiles, 19 spider species and 34 different types of wild flowers. It also acts as a buffer zone between the city and the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, which is spread over 104 sq km area.
Established in 1949 to shift dairy sheds from around the city, it was originally spread over 3,000 acres of land. Today, it has shrunk to just 2,000 acres due to human encroachments as well as public and private development projects.
51-year-old environmental activist, Stalin Dayanand, remembers Aarey from his childhood. He says, “I have grown up learning about a wide variety of mammals including leopards, spotted deer, rusty spotted cat, jungle cat, civets, monkeys, the Sambar deer and barking deer by spending time in Aarey colony. It is disappointing to witness the entire green patch reeling under the threat of vanishing away into nowhere in the name of development.”
If all these projects are allowed to happen, it means the entire city will be reeling under tuberculosis, bronchitis and other respiratory diseases. The rainfall will also go down comparatively sooner and floods will be frequent in the monsoons.
Environmental activist Rishi Aggarwal says, “Wiping out our watershed areas will cause acute water shortages, creating catastrophic imbalances in the environment. In the name of ‘development’, several urban projects are being planned and implemented in Aarey including the Metro yard, development of a zoo, widening of the link road, illegal encroachments, unchecked garbage and waste disposal, to name a few.”
The latest threat to the Aarey Milk Colony is a big one – a direct consequence of the Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority or MMRDA’s plan to build Metro Line 3. The 32.5 km stretch, that will connect Colaba to SEEPZ via Bandra, needs a car shed and to build that MMRDA proposes to clear 2,298 trees of the Aarey Milk Colony. A little over 70 acres of green will need to be cleared for this.
Aggarwal believes that the felling of over 2,000 trees from this colony would directly impact the environment in a bigger way. He says, “The simplest way to inform people about the danger involved in not saving Aarey is that if all these projects are allowed to happen, it means the entire city will be reeling under tuberculosis, bronchitis and other respiratory diseases. The rainfall will also go down comparatively sooner and floods will be frequent in the monsoons.”
To prevent this from happening and to build public opinion against the MMRDA’s plan, every week since mid-February, about 500 people gather on Sundays to protest. Spearheading this is the Save Aarey community started by local residents Manish Gadia, a banker, and Manish Sethi, a businessman, in 2010. Avid cyclists, they first came together to prevent the allocation of Aarey Milk Colony land for a training facility for Maharashtra’s Force One unit.
While awareness and garnering public support is the core focus of the group, their next plan is to officially get Aarey to be declared as a forest zone and transfer the land to the forest department
Sethi says, "I have been cycling in the colony for the past ten years. The colony started showing clear signs of degradation in the past 3-5 years. Then, I joined hands with fellow citizens a year ago to run the Clean Aarey initiative and started online petitions. Now, we have over 6,000 followers on Facebook, Twitter & Google groups and huge support is pouring in from everywhere.”
The Save Aarey campaign has till mid-April to make the authorities rethink their plans. It has mobilized local residents to come in and march silently, participate in tree-hugging sessions in and street theatre performances as well as demonstrations.
On March 1, 2015 different groups joined hands for the first time in their attempt to save the Aarey Milk Colony. Save Aarey Milk Colony, SPROUTS Environmental Trust, Vanashakti, Resqink Association for Wildlife Welfare (RAWW), local tribal groups and political parties like AAP participated and protested for over four hours through the sun and unseasonal drizzle.
In response to the campaign, the state government has constituted an expert panel comprising MMRDA’s Commissioner UPS Madan, BMC’s Commissioner Sitaram Kunte, Urban Development Department Principal Secretary Nitin Kareer and scientists Rakesh Kumar from National Environmental Engineering Research Institute and more to find out the best viable alternative options for the controversial Metro car shed.
But the environmentalists are not taking any chances. Anand Pendharkar, an ecologist says they plan to approach the National Green Tribunal to get it to look into the case. He has started visiting the Metro car depot site every day to document wildlife species there to be provided as proof in order to strengthen the case. “While awareness and garnering public support is the core focus of the group, their next plan is to officially get Aarey to be declared as a forest zone and transfer the land to the forest department,” says Pendharkar.
