Citing the example of the Delhi Metro and the Bombay High Court ruling, Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar on Saturday justified the felling of trees at Aarey Colony in north Mumbai to set up a Metro car shed.
“There was a need to fell 20 to 25 trees for setting up the first metro station in Delhi and then also people had similarly opposed it. But for each tree that was cut, five saplings were planted,” he said while pointing out that the forest cover in the national Capital has increased since then and public transport system has also improved.
“Now, there are 271 stations (in Delhi). Forest undercover area has increased in Delhi. 30 lakh people are using the Metro as public transport,” he said, adding, “this is the mantra of ‘vikas bhi, paryavaran ki suraksha bhi’ (development with environment protection).”
The Minister was responding to a query from media in Lucknow where he was asked about Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd hacking trees to make way for a car shed, hours after the High Court dismissed four petitions filed by NGOs and activists challenging the decision to allow felling of 2,600 trees.
This is not the first time that the trees have been felled for developmental projects. According to a report prepared by a Parliamentary Standing Committee in February 2019, in the last five years since 2013-2018, at least one-third of the 2,39,572 hectares of forest land that India overall lost to various developmental activities in the last 15 years (2003-2018).