A couple of days ago, environmentalists and citizens trying to save the trees in Aarey colony in Mumbai faced a setback, as the Bombay High Court ruled that the area was not a forest, and cleared the way for felling some 2,600 trees for the construction of a car shed as part of the Metro Rail project.
Within hours of this judgement Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation sneaked into Aarey in the dead of the night and axed hundreds of trees, even while citizens and activists stood by helplessly and watched. 29 protesters have been kept in judicial custody and section 144 has been imposed in the area.
While there are hundreds of people who are protesting the felling of trees on ground, #SaveAarey,#AareyChipko is trending on Twitter, with people expressing their displeasure at the authorities for cutting trees, when the effects of deforestation are being actively felt.?
For those who are not aware, Chipko movement or the Chipko andolan was a?¡®nonviolent social and ecological movement by rural villagers, particularly women, in India in the 1970s, aimed at protecting trees and forests slated for government-backed logging. The movement originated in the Himalayan region of Uttar Pradesh (later Uttarakhand) in 1973 and quickly spread throughout the Indian Himalayas. The Hindi word chipko means ¡°to hug¡± or ¡°to cling to¡± and reflects the demonstrators¡¯ primary tactic of embracing the trees to impede the loggers¡¯.
People on social media believe that we need a movement like that to protect the Aarey Colony trees.
It is high time that we as a society wake up the need of protecting nature. The development we need should be sustainable and not at the cost of our environment.