A consequential rush

After the political turmoil in Maharashtra has come to a close, an old environment-related conflict has resurfaced. Among the first decisions of the newly sworn-in Eknath Shinde government is the resumption of the metro-shed project around Aarey forests — leading up to peaceful protests by environmentalists. The path towards resolution of the controversy has been compounded by the fact that what should have been purely an environmental issue, has taken stark political colour. Metro-3 project, sanctioned way back in 2015, and initiated in 2019 by the BJP government, is yet to see the light of the day. The project was stalled by the Uddhav Thackrey-led MVA government in November 2019. The 600-acre land of Aarey colony was declared as ‘forest’ — forbidding multiple forms of construction including government facilities. Uddhav Thackrey, who had been a wildlife photographer at some point in time, was opposing the project right from the beginning. Thackrey must be credited for his efforts towards exploring alternative sites. He appointed a committee chaired by Additional Chief Secretary (Finance) Manoj Saunik for the purpose. The MVA government, however, went against the recommendation of the committee itself which discarded the existence of any viable alternative; and gave a green flag to the Kanjurmarg site. This again was opposed by the BJP, with Devendra Fadnavis claiming that he had already considered the option but couldn’t succeed. The matter further became complicated with the involvement of the Central government which challenged the state government’s prerogative over the land, claiming that it belonged to Centre’s salt department. Hence, a parallel legal battle commenced which is yet to be resolved. The Aarey project assumes significance for the BJP as it aims for its speedy completion. Also, the project is personally dear to Devendra Fadnavis who might be seeing it as undoing of his arch rival Thackeray’s action. The speed with which the new government has resumed the project can also be seen in the context of the personal backlash Devendra Fadnavis had received from environmentalists back in 2019. It must, however, be realized that the Aarey project has far greater consequences than merely political ones. The project site is located around Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP), which is home to a diverse range of rare wildlife animals. The core argument of protesting environmentalists is that the completion of the project will spell disaster for these voiceless living beings. In addition, it will amount to large-scale felling of trees. The state government is already claiming that it has cut above 2,500 trees, and that the 25 per cent of the work is already completed. It is being claimed that a comparable number of trees has been planted elsewhere, but how many of those will result in full-grown trees and in what time, remains uncertain and dependent upon multiple factors. The state government may be making a mistake by discarding the protests as ‘sponsored’ and protesters as ‘politically motivated’. By doing so it is undermining the significance of the concerns raised by them. These are precious voices that need to be heeded to, and not sidelined. Trampling of these voices will only lead to grave political and environmental consequences — that’ll neither be good for the government nor the people. Neither the BJP’s rush to implement Aarey project nor the Shiv Sena’s alternative of Kanjurmarg are backed by substantial evidence. Both have their own sets of flaws. At the end, the entire debate boils down to development vs environment discourse. It is highly unfortunate that governments in India still feel that the environment can be accorded secondary status against development. The rising instances of environment-related disasters and distortions in day-to-day lives signal that environment and development are not antithesis of each other but rather complementary in nature. Just because there is no alternative to the Aarey forest land, the project should not have been resumed in a rush. Detailed cost-benefit analysis of all the three alternatives — Aarey project, Kanjurmarg site and not having the metro project at all — should have been carried out before making any decision. The Maharashtra government can still, by keeping its political ego aside, carry out detailed assessment of the project for the sake of the environment. It’s never too late to mend!