A small win to the environmental activists as Supreme Court orders for no more cutting-down trees in Aarey Colony.

By Abhay Shah

On Monday, the Supreme Court stopped authorities from cutting more trees in Mumbai’s Aarey which is good news for environmental activists. A special bench consisting of justices Arun Mishra and Ashok Bhushan notified that they would have to review all the issue and bring it before the forest bench for hearing on 21 October. “Don’t cut anything now,” the bench said.

The apex court ordered that if someone is still under arrest for protesting trees cutting, they must immediately be released on furnishing of personal bonds. The Maharashtra government told the bench during the hearing that all those arrested in Aarey for protesting against tree cutting were released.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the state said that he had not identified all the records and assured that nothing will be cut into Aarey until the case had been determined.

The petitioners from the PIL stated the bench that Aarey Forest was considered by the state government as an “unclassified forest” and it was illegal to cut trees.

But the Bench noted that the Aarey region was a non-development zone and was not an eco-sensitive area as alleged by the petitioner after reading the notification released by the Maharashtra Government.

On Sunday, The Apex court decided to register as PIL a letter from law student Rishav Ranjan, addressing to the Indian Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, to look out for a stay on cutting of the trees. A notice of the urgent hearing was made on the website of the Supreme Court and set up a special bench.

On the 4th of October, Bombay High Court declined to claim that Aarey Colony was a forest and refused to quash Mumbai’s municipal corporation decision allowing more than 2,600 trees to be cut in the green zone to create a metro car shed. Eventually, the BMC started to cut trees in the night, with reports showing that more than 1,000 trees were axed.

The letter states: “While we have written this letter to you, the authorities of Mumbai are still destroying the lungs of Mumbai ie Aarey forest by cleaning the trees near the bank of the Mithi river, and according to press reports 1,500 of these trees have already been cleared by authorities. “Not just this, but our friends who organized the vigil against the act of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) on the site, were put in jail.”

The student asked the Supreme Court “to exercise their epistolary powers to protect Aarey without engaging in technicalities because there was no time to prepare an appropriate appeal petition and to cover the bruises of these young activists who are responsible citizens standing for serious environmental problems.”

It was also reported that students had moved the apex court because the High Court of Bombay dismissed the bail plea of 29 activists who had participated in the “peaceful vigil” and were arrested by Mumbai police against tree felling.

The letter alleged that the student activists had been abused and harassed by the Mumbai police who booked them for “assaulting a public servant in order to prevent him from carrying out his duties” and “unlawful assembly” under the IPC.

The letter states that Aarey forest is situated adjacent to the Sanjay Gandhi National Park and has five lakh trees.

The Mumbai Metro-3 project had been proposed to cut trees and the high court explicitly refused to recognize Aarey as an ecologically sensitive problem, because of the limited competence, particularly for the construction of the car sheds. On Saturday, police in Aarey enforced Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code, restricting movement and group gathering, and shutting off the areas. Following clashes with the police, twenty-nine activists were arrested and released later on Sunday.

It also became a battleground for allies Shiv Sena and BJP, where Sena’s chief Uddhav Thackeray once said that they would “teach a lesson to murders of trees.”

Aaditya Thackeray, chief of Yuva Sena and first Thackeray to enter the electoral fray, was the activists’ vocal supporter and slammed the government for destroying the trees.