Maha Govt To Move Metro Car Shed Project Back To Aarey, Furious Mumbaikars Take To Streets
Protest erupted again against the new Maharashtra government's decision to relocate metro car shed project back to Aarey forest in Mumbai. Hundreds of people held placards of ¡®Save Aarey forest¡¯ and raised slogans against the government.
Mumbai's Aarey forest is an 1,800-acre area which is often termed as the city's 'green lung'. It is?one of the few green spaces (spread over 2000 acres) left in Mumbai.
What's happening
Environmental organisations called for a peaceful protest at Aarey forest on Sunday morning and hundreds of Mumbaikars gathered at the picnic point in the area. A heavy police force has been deployed in the forest area to maintain the law and order situation.
The protesters are up in arms against the new Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his deputy Devendra Fadnavis who overturned the previous Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government's decision to relocate the proposed Mumbai Metro Line-3 car shed from Aarey Colony.
Why the opposition
The decision to set up the car shed in the wooded Aarey area was opposed by environmental groups, as it involved cutting down hundreds of trees.?
According to environment activists, the forest not only provides fresh air to people of the city, but it also a key habitat for the wildlife, including some endemic species. The forest has some five lakh trees, and also has a couple of rivers and some lakes flowing through it.
Earlier, former CM Uddhav Thackeray had ordered the relocation of the metro car shed from Aarey to Kanjurmarg.?The decision to relocate the project back to Aarey was made soon after CM Eknath Shind took the oath.
The significance
The Aarey forest?is within the eco sensitive zone of Sanjay Gandhi National Park. It is classified as mixed moist deciduous type forest.?Apart from leopards, some 300 different varieties of flora and fauna are found in the Aarey forest.
The forest is a neighbourhood situated in Goregaon (East), a suburb of the city of Mumbai, India. It was established in 1949 to revolutionise the processing and marketing of dairy products in the city.
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