Mumbai’s Aarey Colony needs to be protected to preserve wildlife & biodiversity, says Aaditya Thackeray
The Hindu
On July 10, Aaditya Thackeray participated in a protest by environmentalists against the Metro car shed in Aarey
Former Maharashtra minister Aaditya Thackeray on Sunday participated in a protest against the State government’s decision to construct a Metro car shed in Mumbai’s Aarey Colony, and said the 808-acre area there was reserved as a forest to preserve the wildlife and biodiversity in the city.
“I appeal to the new State government (led by CM Eknath Shinde) not to take out the anger against us on Mumbai,” Thackeray told reporters.
Thackeray said the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, wherein he had served as the tourism and environment minister, was “pro-Mumbai, pro-Maharashtra and a votary of sustainable development”.
In the Aarey forest, often termed as the city’s ‘green lung’, located in Goregaon western suburb, some 300 different varieties of flora and fauna are found, including a large number of leopards.
Green activists have been vehemently opposing the cutting of trees in Aarey for the car shed.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis recently directed state Advocate General and the administration to submit a proposal on building the car shed in Aarey Colony, instead of Kanjurmarg, the eastern suburb which was chosen by the previous Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government.
On Sunday, Aaditya Thackeray participated in a protest by environmentalists against the Metro car shed in Aarey.
In 2011, the Karnataka government announced that five botanical gardens will be developed on the lines of the Lalbagh Botanical Garden in Bengaluru across the State. But according to the latest developments, there will only be four such gardens as the Horticulture Department is most likely to drop the project that was supposed to come up in Chikkaballapura district.