Mumbai is in shock as BMC Tree Authority cleared the Mumbai Metrorail Corporation Limited's (MMRCL) proposal to cut 2,702 trees to build a metro 3-car shed in Aarey Colony.?
There was a committee of 20 member Tree authority, of which the six Shiv Sena members voted against the proposal. The BJP and NCP voted in favor of the cutting of trees, and oddly enough, the tree experts from the authority supported the decision too, according to Mumbai Mirror.?
The decision has not gone down well with Mumbaikars and in the past few months, the BMC received over 82,0900 objections to uprooting the trees in Aarey.?
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Even the actress, Shraddha Kapoor has been posting about this actively on her social media, expressing outrage. Not only that, she was also a part of the human chain that Mumbaikars formed to protest the cutting of over 2,500 trees.
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Images and video of hundreds of people in Mumbai forming a human chain to protest against the cutting of trees in Aarey are going viral on Twitter.
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Men, women, kids and elders have all banded together to form a chain. They are standing strong even in heavy Mumbai rains, some with umbrellas, some with raincoats some not even with that, bent on getting their protest across.?
In times where deforestation has proven to be a major cause of climate change, this decision by BMC is a real shocker. We cannot keep uprooting trees in the name of development. If the part of the forest really has to be cleared, a way and place to replant these trees should be worked on, instead of killing them completely.?