“Aarey cannot be declared as forest just because it consists of greenery” Maharashtra Government opposes plea

The Maharashtra Government and Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MMRCL), on Thursday, opposed a plea by NGO Vanashakti, which sought a direction from the Court to declare over 1000 hectares of Aarey Colony a forest area and an ecologically sensitive zone under the Indian Forest Act..A Division Bench of Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice Bharati Dangre are hearing petitions challenging the construction of a Metro car depot in the Aarey Milk Colony, known as the green lung of the megacity..After a two-day long hearing, petitioner activists and respondent state authorities concluded their arguments on Vanashakti’s plea on Thursday..On Thursday, the State Government opposed the NGO’s plea, stating that the contentions made by petitioners have already been considered and decided in the judgment of Amrita Bhattacharjee vs State of Maharashtra, passed by the Bombay High Court in October, last year..A Division Bench of Justices SC Dharmadhikari and P D Naik, on October 26, last year had dismissed a petition seeking the construction of metro car depot in Aarey area be shifted to an alternate land at Kanjurmarg in the city..Yesterday, Advocate General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni, appearing for the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MMRCL) argued that contentions made by petitioners seeking to declare Aarey as forest have already been considered by the High Court and the issue is pending before the Supreme Court since the petitioners have filed an appeal in that regard..Kumbhakoni said,.“Arguments of petitioners are beyond consideration of this bench. Let the Apex Court decide the issue. When the matter has been already heard and concluded by the High Court, it need not be entertained again.”.Kumbhakoni further referred to the High Court judgment of October, last year and submitted that the Court had observed that ‘it is erroneous to term Aarey or Aarey Milk Colony area as a forest.’.The Court in its October judgment had noted,.“The Expert Committee constituted for declaration of Eco-sensitive Zone had, however, unanimously decided that the area of 165 hectares of the said Aarey Land, which includes the land proposed to be allotted to metro car depot, should not be included in the Eco-sensitive Zone and accordingly, the final notification did not include the said 165 hectares of land in the notified Eco-sensitive Zone. Hence, it is erroneous to term Aarey or Aarey Milk Colony area as a forest.”.Moreover, on Wednesday, the Chief Justice had enquired from the state about the 41-hectare land in Kanjurmarg which was recommended by the Technical Committee for the metro car depot..In this regard, Kumbhakoni submitted that the issue was already considered by the High Court and the Kanjurmarg land was not available due to technical reasons..In light of this, Kumbhakoni readout state’s submissions as noted in the October 2018 judgment. The state had argued,.“The technical difficulties, inter alia, were that the land at Kanjurmarg would have to be filled by 3 to 4 meters to raise the depot above high floor level, this is a large-scale filling. It would conflict with two monsoon seasons in the time period, over and above which, the availability of the fill and logistics to get the fill were both uncertain.”.Senior Advocate Shrihari Aney, representing the state on Kanjurmarg land issue, had argued before the Court that even assuming the land at Kanjurmarg was available, it would not be possible to construct a metro-car depot there..“The car depot requires to be in Aarey. It is not feasible to have it at Kanjurmarg, which is located kilometers away from the Colaba-Bandra- Seepz route of the Metro 3 project,” Aney had said..Moreover, senior advocate Anil Sakhare, another counsel representing state government opposed the plea and argued that Aarey cannot be declared as forest just because it consists of greenery..“Aarey was formed in the past as a milk colony and to keep cattle and horse stables,” Sakhare submitted..Senior Advocate Gayatri Singh appeared for the NGO Vanashakti and other petitioners..Singh, while concluding her arguments on Wednesday had said that the construction of metro car depot at Aarey should not be permitted and cited two biodiversity reports of the experts, showing a variety of rare species of trees, birds, butterflies and other fauna found in Aarey, which are generally present in forests..While the Court closed the arguments on Vanashakti’s plea on Thursday, the Court will hear other petitions on Aarey issue on September 30.