Aarey in danger today

By Don Aguiar

Mumbai, July 14, 2022: Today Aarey is in danger, tossed and turned by political parties only for their personal greed. They are all set to sell it to builders to develop Mumbai into a concrete jungle.

Aarey Forest, or Aarey Milk Colony and Aarey Colony, is a rich urban forest within the eco sensitive zone of Sanjay Gandhi National Park. It is classified as mixed moist deciduous type forest that acts as a buffer between the park and the city, being one of the few green spaces (spread over 2000 acres) left in Mumbai.

On September 3, 2020, the Maharashtra government declared one fifth of the Aarey Colony, an area of approximately 600 acres, as a reserved forest.

The forest is a neighborhood situated in Goregaon (East), a suburb of the city of Mumbai, India. It was established in 1949 to revolutionize the processing and marketing of dairy products in the city.

It is time now we say ‘Mobai aapli hai’ (Mumbai is ours).by supporting the Save Aarey Project. Don’t have to be at Aarey but can do your bit in your own way. Let’s save the soil. Let’s save our land and proudly say Mee Mobaikar.

Though Metro 3 may have intensive carbon footprints, it is in the interest of Mumbai’s environment to have efficient public transport systems like Metro which help in reducing the carbon footprints released by vehicular traffic as long as it does not destroy the carbon negative forests which help in absorbing the pollution and carbon dioxide emissions.

Political parties should not damage the lungs of Mumbai which is Aarey as it has great wildlife biodiversity. The protests and various petitions for saving the green lung in Aaray are not against Metro but against initially a Metro car shed which is to be built in the forest.

The battle for Aarey has heated up again with the change of guard in the state. Are those who root for the protection of green spaces in our city anti-development? That is what the powers that be would like us to believe. The truth could be that development and the environment can go hand in hand.

Truth has become the greatest causality of the times we live in. Truth today is whatever satisfies your personal, moral and ideological compass. Evidence today is a group of people who subscribe to your views. Truth now is largely based on perception, and the battle for perception is fought daily on our television screens, audio–visuals, print media and social media which is controlled by the government to spread false claims in order to convince Mumbaikars that constructing a car shed in Aarey forest and subsequent infrastructure for support is not harming the environment.

The present Shiv Sena rebel/BJP government claim that: Metro 3 reduces CO2 emission better than trees. AND The 2,800 trees that are affected by Metro 3 project reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 61 metric tonnes annually, while Metro 3 would reduce emissions by 9907 metric tonnes every year.

But the Fact is: MMRCL calculated only how much emissions Metro 3 can prevent but did not give the figures of emissions that the operation of Metro 3 will release every day. A study by the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar metro railway said the service prevents daily emissions of 22.7 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2). But the operation releases 75.6 tonnes of CO2 every day because the service consumes electricity for traction, lighting, air-conditioning, escalators and other facilities. Hence, this metro line currently produces (and not reduce) a net increase of 52.9 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions every day.

Metro authorities claim that increase in CO2 emissions due to impacted trees at the car shed shall be compensated in 4 days once the metro starts. If this claim is to be believed then Metro3 is carbon negative whereas the fact is Metro is highly energy intensive. It is not even carbon neutral but carbon positive. This is the most ostentatious lie coming from Metro authorities fooling the public.

Comparing the capacity for carbon sequestration of Metro 3 with that of the trees is a blasphemy. If MMRCL can measure carbon sequestration of a tree why didn’t it measure the oxygen producing capacity of a tree? How will Metro 3 compensate the amount of oxygen that will be lost from destroying 2702 trees? Besides, the measurable CO2 sequestration, there are a lot of other benefits that trees provide that the Metro cannot provide:

– Can Metro 3 produce oxygen while performing CO2 sequestration like trees?
– Can Metro 3 absorb odours and pollutant gases (nitrogen oxides, ammonia, sulphur dioxide and ozone) and filter particulates out of the air by trapping them on their leaves and bark?
– Can Metro 3 cool the city, provide shading to our homes and streets, break up urban heat and release water like trees?
– Can Metro 3 reduce runoff like trees by breaking rainfall, allowing the water to flow down the trunk and into the earth below the tree which prevents storm water from carrying pollutants to the ocean?
– Can Metro 3 act like a sponge that filters the rainwater naturally and uses it to recharge groundwater supplies like trees?
– Can Metro 3 slow runoff and hold soil in place while preventing soil erosion like trees?
– Can Metro 3 nurture and nourish the rich biodiversity like trees?

Metro rail power requirements do not end with just the running trains. There is power requirement for lighting, escalators, lifts, station services, signalling & telecom, air-conditioned stations, etc. The electricity demands of Metro is fulfilled by coal powered thermal stations like most other transport facilities) Air pollution from coal-fired power plants is linked with asthma, cancer, heart and lung ailments, neurological problems, acid rain, global warming, and other severe environmental and public health impacts. Lakes, rivers, streams, and drinking water supplies are all heavily impacted by coal mines. There is contamination of surface, groundwater, and soil. There is large deforestation to mine coal. Hydro power plants too cause ecological destruction.

The present Shiv Sena rebel/BJP government further claim that it will not allow any harm to the environment as it will plant many times more trees than each tree cut.

But the fact is: Structurally complex forest like Aarey that has taken centuries to be built cannot be substituted with new plantations. The mature trees of a forest existing in unison with their other indigenous colleagues have deep exotic root architectures that can sequester carbon (and other nutrients, plus water) more effectively than stand-alone trees which will be planted as a part of the compensatory plantation. Besides, the different sizes and shapes of the leaves in a forest ecosystem absorb different types of pollutants whose cumulative effect is seen in a cleaner, filtered, and cooler air in the area around the forest. To expect saplings to do the job of a full-grown tree is like expecting a new born baby to take care of a family’s expense just like the earning member. A sapling requires water, nutrients, and care before it becomes mature enough to perform the role of climate mitigation like its elderly counterparts.

Trees are not some static poles that can be easily shifted from one place to another. Trees form a multi-layered biodiversity ecosystem in the area where they stand firm. Right from their roots that support millions of microbes to their stem, leaves, flowers, and fruits, every part of a tree anchors millions of species that are dependent on the tree. MMRCL says that it will conveniently transplant the trees but how will it transplant leopards, scorpions, birds, bugs, and the biodiversity that each tree harbours?

BMC and MMRCL have a very poor history of tree transplantation drives. The BMC’s tree authority permitted the felling of 25,018 trees between 2010 and 2016, revealing a right-to-information (RTI) response. However, it failed to provide records for the number of trees replanted or transplanted in their stead over seven years.

Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MMRC) has not been able to save most of the trees affected by the metro rail. There were 1060 trees transplanted by the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MMRCL) at seven different locations inside Aarey, out of which 680 are dead which means 64 percent trees transplanted are dead.

The Bombay High Court-appointed committee remarked that the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC) has not carried out the transplantation of trees affected by the Metro-3 project efficiently, that many transplanted trees did not show signs of sprouting, while the metro rail body has also delayed geo-tagging the affected trees, as recommended by the committee. It slammed MMRC for not using modern machines to transplant trees.

The common Mumbaikars who travel daily by local transportation like trains and buses are the direct beneficiaries of public transport. They want an efficient mass transit system for Mumbai but not at the cost of losing their green lungs especially when other eco-friendly and cost-friendly options are available. If sheds are built in Kanjurmarg, forest life will be preserved, along with tribal life and money.

We are all born to help each other. Rivers do not drink their own water. Trees do not eat their own fruit. The sun does not shine on itself. And flowers do not spread their fragrance for themselves. Living for others is a rule of nature.

We are all born to help each other. No matter how difficult it is life is good when you are happy, but much better when others are happy, because of you, so let’s do our bit to “Save Aarey.”