Citizens fear trees will be destroyed before grievances are addressed
After the Supreme Court (SC) order vacating the High Court stay on felling of trees, citizens claim that the workers along the Metro III (Colaba-BandraSEEPZ) line have begun cutting trees in full swing. They fear all the trees will be destroyed before the committee to hear the matter is even formed.
The SC directed the citizens to place their grievances before this committee of Bombay High Court (HC) but this committee has not been formed as it is vacation period of the court.
As per the SC direction of May 18, a committee of two judges will be formed by the Chief Justice (CJ) to oversee the compliance with regard to transplantation and re-plantation of the trees. Following this direction, the activists approached the HC on May 19 but have not received a response yet. The activists have been informed that the CJ is on holiday and will return on May 29 so till then no committee can be formed.
On the other hand, the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC) has gone ahead with felling of trees starting from Saturday. The activists surveyed the sites of the Metro III stations and realised that large number of trees were cut and the work of felling of trees was going on.
The activists believed that they have lost hope to save the trees of 10 Metro III stations as the trees at these sites have already been chopped. Zoru Bhathena, an activist, said, “The sites like Cuffe Parade and Siddhi Vinayak Temple at Dadar do not have any trees left. The MMRC has cleared these sites. We have hopes for just 16 stations where there are few trees left.”
The activists have no objection now for the project work at these 10 stations. They also feel that they have a slim hope to save the remaining trees as they do not know when committee will be formed.
“There is no point in fighting for these stations now as the trees are already cut. If there is further delay in forming this committee then the remaining trees will also be cut. Our issue is mainly with felling of trees but if that is not addressed then there is no point,” said Bhathena.