HC seeks Metro’s reply on ‘indiscriminate’ tree felling

Bombay High Court on Wednesday sought the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited’s reply to the allegations of cutting trees in south Mumbai arbitrary and indiscriminately to execute the Metro line III project.

A vacation bench of Justices PD Naik and MS Karnik sought the MMRCL’s reply on a plea by city resident Kunal Birwadkar, alleging that even the trees which were not supposed to be cut initially by the MMRCL were being felled arbitrarily and without proper application of mind.

Birwadkar urged the court to grant a stay on any further cutting of trees by the authority till hearing of his pleas.

The court, however, refused to grant stay and posted the matter for hearing on May 26, seeking MMRCL’s reply by then.

Over 5,000 trees are proposed to be cut in various areas of south Mumbai to pave way for the execution of Colaba–Bandra-SEEPZ line III project.

The high court had earlier granted a stay on cutting of the trees, but on May 5, it vacated its stay and gave a go ahead to MMRCL to cut trees after observing that a balance needs to be struck between development and the environment.

The court had allowed MMRCL to cut the trees on an undertaking by the corporation that for each tree it would cut in south Mumbai, another one would be planted at the same spot after the construction work is over.

This would be in addition to the three saplings that the authority would plant in suburban Mumbai for every tree they cut.

The 33-km line III project is a part of the Metro system which will connect the Cuffe Parade business district in south Mumbai to SEEPZ in the city's north-central suburb.