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SC orders status quo in Aarey case
Why in news?
- Petitioners, who have challenged the felling of trees in the Aarey forest in Mumbai to construct a metro car shed, told SC that the “new government” in the State had set up a committee to identify alternative land for the project.
More in news
- Status Quo ordered: Bench of SC ordered status quo, that is, there would be no felling of trees & scheduled the case for hearing in Jan next.
- Solicitor General for the State mentioned: the question in the case is whether the area allotted for the metro car shed is forest land or not.
- The Narrative:
(1) Court had initially stayed the cutting of trees after a law student moved the apex court alleging that over 2,600 trees had been fell leading to protests.
(2) Areas of Aarey were transferred: Court had observed “seen from the Management Plan for Sanjay Gandhi National Park, Borivali, Mumbai, that some of the areas of the Aarey Milk Colony were transferred to revenue lands from the unclassed forests”. Aarey forest is located adjacent to the Sanjay Gandhi National Park and has five lakh trees.
(3) Tree felling is being opposed by green activists and local residents. The letter said Aarey was an unclassified forest and robbing Mumbai of its green lungs was illegal.
(4) Bombay High Court had refused to declare the Aarey Colony a forest: declined to quash a Mumbai Municipal decision to permit the cutting of the trees for the metro car shed.
Sources
The Hindu