The Supreme Court on Monday directed Mumbai civic authorities to stop the chopping of trees in the suburban Aarey Colony and immediately release the green activities arrested for protesting the felling.
News agency PTI, however, reported that the Maharashtra government had admitted that the number of trees required to be hewn to create space for a proposed Metro car shed — the stated purpose for the felling — had already been cut down.
The felling began on Friday night after Bombay High Court refused to quash the Mumbai municipal corporation’s decision to allow over 2,600 trees to be chopped in the green zone, a move that triggered protests by local people and environmentalists.
The apex court bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Ashok Bhushan assembled for a special hearing on Monday amid the Dussehra recess. It recorded an undertaking from solicitor-general Tushar Mehta, who appeared for the Maharashtra government, that all those arrested would be released and “status quo” maintained till October 21, the date for the next hearing.
The bench said the matter would be taken up with the related environmental issues that a forest bench headed by Justice Mishra was hearing.
Mehta said all the arrested protesters had already been released and if some were still in custody, they would be freed immediately.
Rishav Ranjan, a law student from Uttar Pradesh, had in a letter to the Chief Justice of India requested an urgent hearing of the matter before more trees were cut down by the authorities. The apex court decided to treat the letter as a public interest petition.
Senior advocate Sanjay Hegde appeared for the student while another senior advocate, Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appeared for a group of interveners supporting the environmentalists.
Supriya Sule, a leader of the Opposition Nationalist Congress Party, welcomed the apex court order but said the state government’s admission that the necessary number of trees had already been cut was worrying, PTI reported.
Ruling alliance partner Shiv Sena said the court order was a “moral victory” for the environmentalists, the agency report added. The Sena, the junior partner in the BJP-led government, has been opposing the felling.
The PTI report quoted Sena spokesperson Maneesha Kayande as saying the government’s failure to declare the Aarey Colony as a forest was a “mistake” and regretting that nearly “2,100 trees” had been felled in two days.