TOI confirms trees gone at Aarey site, Metro says 25 percent of work done

Deep inside Aarey Colony, one of the last surviving green lungs of the city, a sprawling 80-acre plot, as big as four Oval Maidans, has been turned into a high-security zone. Barricaded with metal sheets, the gates are manned by toughies — beefed-up bouncers hired privately and security guards too. A TOI team which tried to enter the site on Tuesday was told to stay off and not click pictures.This is the land where the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC) claimed to have cut over 2,000 trees under the cover of darkness one night in early October to set up its controversial Metro-3 car shed.

Last week, the Uddhav Thackeray government finally halted work on the site, months after a major outrage which saw the police imposing curfew in the area and subsequently arresting over two dozen young activists.
On Tuesday, a request by TOI to enter the site was promptly turned down by MMRC authorities. The guards outside were instructed to shoo away people. We found posters stuck on the barricades at the entry, stating that work has been halted.
The 20-ft-high barricades ensure that no one walking or driving past can see anything inside. Near an isolated spot, where there are no guards, we stood on an elevated rock and stretched ourselves to peek inside. The vast plot of land is now almost barren: the trees are gone, although on the periphery there is some greenery. MMRC sources said 25% of work was complete at the construction site when the car shed project was halted by the chief minister. Large gantries and excavation machines now lie idle. When the state government ordered a stay, ground levelling was already underway. Also, some brick-and-mortar structures have been built at various places. There is some green patch on the fringes of the depot boundary, but MMRC sources said these were never meant to be removed. “The structures you see are for the workshop and administrative offices. Also, some work may have been done for the operation and control centre,” said a source.
MMRC expects the first rake to arrive by November 2020. Besides stabling lines, a test track is required to be built. The project will not suffer any delay in rolling out the service by December 2021 if workshops, stabling lines and the test track are ready by then.
A few hundred metres from the car shed plot, the MMRC has planted new saplings and transplanted trees that were cut. Many are dead or have wilting leaves. Every transplanted tree and sapling have been labelled by the MMRC, giving its botanical name, date of transplantation, the transplant agency and also the maintainer. Two caretakers, Sheshman Yadav and Suraj Karotiya, have been entrusted with watering the trees and saplings. Yadav said a water tanker comes to the site twice a week. “We also remove grass-like vegetation that comes in the way of the transplanted trees,” said Yadav, who is paid Rs 10,000 a month for the work.
Amrita Bhattacharjee from the Aarey Conservation Group (ACG) maintains that even though many trees might have been cut, the area continues to be a forest. “If the Metro authorities move out, the forest can regenerate itself,” she said. “This falls under the catchment area of Mithi river and needs to be protected.”