A massive indignation erupted among environmentalists, politicians and people from different walks of life in the metropolis on Saturday over the arrest of 29 activists who staged a protest on Friday night against the felling of trees at Aarey Colony in north Mumbai, even as the Bombay High Court dismissed a petition seeking a stay on the felling of trees at Aarey Colony.
Hours after the Bombay High Court dismissed four petitions challenging the felling of 2,646 trees in Aarey Colony, 29 activists, including six women, were arrested by the police between 8.30 pm and 11 pm on Saturday, when they resisted the tree felling operation started by the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (MMRCL) to make way for the construction of a car shed for Metro phase-III.
The arrested activists were booked under sections 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty), 143 (punishment for unlawful assembly) and 149 (every member guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object) of the IPC.
While the activists alleged that the police behaved in a high-handed manner, a senior police official stationed at the Aarey Colony police station said, “The green activists numbering anywhere from 100 to 200 obstructed the police from carrying out their duty. They also assaulted a police constable and one Ms Anita Shankar Sutar, who is a complainant in the case. We have arrested 29 persons, including six women, connection with the incident”.
The arrested activists were produced before a Suburban court which remanded them in police custody for five days.
As the news of late night massacre of trees and the arrest of green activists at Aarey Colony at Goregaon in north Mumbai spread like wild fire, there was an instant public outrage in the social media. One of the petitioners Zoru Bhathena who had earlier challenged the felling of trees at Aarey Colony, moved the Bombay High Court on Saturday morning, seeking to a direction to restrain the MMRCL from continuing tree felling at Aarey Colony.
Bhathena’s counsel Pushpa Thapa urged that the court to restrain MMRCL to proceed with tree felling till the affected parties moved the Supreme Court. Another lawyer Sonal, appearing for the original petitioner, told the court that after the dismissal of petitions on Friday the MMRCL was expected not to go ahead with the felling of trees, but the expectation was belied at the ground. She urged the court to impose restraint on MMRCL till October 14 when opens after Dussehrea vacation.
However, MMRCL’s lawyer Akashay Sinhde opposed the petition saying that the request had been made by the petitioner orally and it had been rejected. He urged the court not to grant any relief to the petitioner, “keeping in mind the huge investment any delay in the project, the overriding public interest would suffer”.
Rejecting the plea for restraint on tree felling at Aarey colony, a HC bench of Justices AK Menon and SC Dharmadhikari noted: “There is nothing on record to show any request to stay the operation, implementation and enforcement of the judgement and order, nor any specific restraint was sought. We cannot proceed on the oral understanding. Merely because another bench is constituted, it would not be proper to grant any relief”.
A HC division bench of Chief Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice Bharati Dangre had on Friday refused to declare Aarey Colony a forest and also declined to quash the BMC tree authority’s decision allowing felling of over 2,646 trees in the green zone to make way of a metro car shed.
Dismissing the petitions filed by green activist Zoru Bhathena and Shiv Sena corporator Yashwant Kamalakar Jadhav, the HC bench had observed, “Thus, as in the two companion petitions which we have dismissed today, the Greens fail even in these two petitions, but not on account of sailing their boats in the wrong channel, but on merits”. The HC bench imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on Yashwant Jadhav, who had filed a petition against the approval granted by the civic body’s tree authority. He is a member of the BMC’s tree authority.
Terming all the petitioners “Davids” (environmentalists) taking on the industrial “Goliaths”, apparently suggesting that they are fighting an unequal battle, the court had said, “Relationship with nature and love for environment alone is true and all other relationships are unreal and temporary, is their (environmentalists) belief. Their hearts are a temple of devotion to flora and fauna”.
“The issue is pending before the Supreme Court and the National Green Tribunal. Hence, we are dismissing the petition on the principle of commonality and not on merits,” the HC bench had said.
The police had clamped prohibitory orders barring the assembly of four or more persons in the areas surrounding Aarey Colony.