High court dismisses petitions on Aarey, says greens have 'failed'

Mumbai: "The greens (environmentalists) have failed," the Bombay High Court said on Friday, while refusing to declare Aarey Colony a forest and declining to quash the BMC tree authority's decision allowing felling of over 2,600 trees in the green zone to set up a metro carshed.

The court imposed a cost of Rs 50,000 on Shiv Sena corporator Yashwant Jadhav, who opposed the approval given by the BMC tree authority, of which he is a member, for hacking trees in the green belt.

A division bench of Chief Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice Bharati Dangre dismissed four petitions filed by NGOs and environmental activists on issues related to Aarey Colony in Goregaon, a major green lung of the metropolis.

The court termed all the petitioners as "Davids" taking on the industrial "Goliaths", apparently suggesting that they were fighting an unequal battle.

One of the pleas moved by city-based NGO Vanshakti had sought that Aarey Colony be declared a forest and an ecologically sensitive zone, while another petition filed by green activist Zoru Bathena had pleaded that the area be given the status of a floodplain.

Two separate petitions were filed by Bathena and Jadhav, challenging the decision of the BMC tree authority permitting the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (MMRCL) to cut 2,656 trees to construct a metro carshed in Aarey Colony.