#AareyChipko Trends As Angry People Take To Twitter To Express Displeasure At Cutting Trees
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.
?When the Govt conducts Surgical Strikes on Mumbai¡¯s lungs itself! Well done ?#SaveAarey #SaveAareyForest pic.twitter.com/p2AXtow0ig
¡ª Abhivyakti Group (@AbhivyaktiGroup) October 5, 2019
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.
¡°What we are doing to the forests of the world is but a mirror reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and to one another.¡±
¡ª Meet Hayer MLA (@meet_hayer) October 5, 2019
¡ª Mahatma Gandhi
We hv to start something like Chipko Movement of 1970s to Protect our trees from these govts @PreetiSMenon#SaveAarey #AareyChipko pic.twitter.com/y0TUkfhRZT
#AareyChipko
¡ª Shalini Puthal (@uthal_puthal) October 5, 2019
So infuriated at the secret cutting of forest area! Our government has failed us at so many levels
#AareyForest #AareyChipko
¡ª kapil bhargava (@kapilbhargava24) October 5, 2019
Where we are heading to? Do we want development on the stake of life?What you will achieve ultimately? Don't let this happen please. Earlier Amazon burnt for days. Now this. In future something else. Till when? When you will stop? Till 1 tree? pic.twitter.com/dNwOPzXKpO
We will starve, we will do hard labour but we will not sell wood because wood has life in it and we cannot cut wood." - PM Narendra Modi
¡ª SAURABH TRIPATHI (@SauRaBh_281996) October 5, 2019
Irony just died a thousand deaths.#AareyChipko #AareyProtest@narendramodi pic.twitter.com/waizLSw1lg
Where did this energy go now that #AareyForest needs help? Hypocrisy runs deep in @MumbaiPolice #AareyAiKaNa #AareyChipko https://t.co/KB8yhiQSVq
¡ª Ishaan Menon (@IshaanMenon) October 5, 2019
Young citizens detained. All nature lovers. Begging to protect our trees. This video is a cruel wake up call. Hope it stirs the inner recesses of your heart. You assured these old trees would be translocated. This is no way of cutting them for translocation!!! #AareyChipko pic.twitter.com/5HknJ2Jx9j
¡ª Dia Mirza (@deespeak) October 5, 2019
#SaveAareyForest #SaveAareySaveMumbai #SaveTrees all members of the campaign "IXU for improved air connectivity" stand high with Aarey#fly_high_IXU #AareyAiKaNa #AareyForest #AareyChipko pic.twitter.com/ZschLGsIG0
¡ª Aurangabad for improved air connectivity (@fly_high_IXU) October 5, 2019
RIP 3000 tree in mumbai
¡ª ????? (@sherkhn582) October 6, 2019
Shame on this type of development
We don't want this VIKASH
Killed tree@GretaThunberg #AareyChipko pic.twitter.com/OU2SVEToSt
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.
