Tree Authority nod to be challenged

Mumbai: Environmental activists, angry with the Tree Authority for sanctioning a controversial proposal to remove of 2,702 trees at Aarey Colony for a Metro 3 car shed on Thursday, will file a writ petition in the Bombay high court stating that the move is illegal.

“The official procedure for clearing the proposal was bypassed and the voting of Tree Authority members in its support was not in writing. The Supreme Court judgment on the petition to save Aarey is still pending. The authority has not yet replied to the objections filed against the proposal,” said activist Zoru Bathena who will be filing the petition, most likely, on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, The Friends of Trees (FOT) an association whose two lifetime members are among the Tree Authority’s five independent experts — and who allegedly supported the proposal— came out with a clarification that the duo had acted in a manner contrary to the stand of the association. The World Wide Fund for Nature, whose member had also ‘backed the proposal, maintained that it does not support the cutting of trees in the colony, which is considered the city’s green lungs.

“Two petitions were filed in the matter. The petition for shifting the car shed to alternative sites was dismissed by the Supreme Court as the government said that other sites like Kanjurmarg are not feasible. However, the petition challenging the change in the land’s use is still pending in the Supreme Court,” Mr Bathena said.

The latter plea relates to activists’ claim that Aarey is a forest. The Ma-harashtra government, however, has refuted this, citing government records.

Meanwhile, the Tree Authority’s independent experts who supported the proposal claimed that it was sanctioned amid pandemonium and no written approval had been given for it. Horticulturist Chandrakant Salunke, one of the experts, said, “There was chaos during and after the meeting. Two proposals for Aarey were presented: one was to postpone the matter and the other to sanction the removal of trees. There was an uproar among political parties. The Shiv Sena opposed the move while the Congress walked out. There was a vote taken in favour of the proposal and us experts raised our hands. However, we failed to understand that this was the final meeting, and our votes were counted.”

Mr Salunkhe added that no discussion was held on the expert’s site visit report and the proposal was sanctioned in haste. “If meetings are conducted in such manner, we experts will back out from the Tree Authority. Two of us will write about this to the municipal commissioner,” he added.

Another expert, who did not wish to be named, alleged that his colleagues and he had been targeted, abused and blamed for supporting the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

“However, we did not support any political party and only gave our technical advice,” he said.

While six members of the Tree Authority are from the Shiv Sena, four belong to the BJP. The Congress has two members while the NCP has a single member in the body.