Aarey Aika Na – The Real, Verifiable and Unbiased Truth - Politics - iGauravMahajan - राष्ट्रहित सर्वोपरि

Aarey Aika Na – The Real, Verifiable and Unbiased Truth

Since 2014, woke celebrities and vainglorious politicians disguised as environmentalists have been busy sabotaging critical infrastructure projects in India. While they themselves live unsustainable luxurious lifestyles, they care little about the sufferings of the common man. They travel in fuel gushing SUVs, but want the common man to hang their lives at risk by traveling in overcrowded trains. Mindless opposition to Aarey metro car shed project should wake up every concerned citizen of this country to fight against this fake environmentalists.

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Introduction:

We are a country where project delays resulting in wastage of taxpayer’s money is nothing new. We had reached a point where lethargy and callousness of government agencies was considered to be a part of life. Post 2014, with Modi at the centre and Devendra Fadnavis at the state, expectations of having a better life started becoming a reality. However, with the Modi government curbing illicit NGO transactions, political agendas and vested interest have been trying to derail key infrastructure projects by using the legal system and arm-chair activism. The Aarey car shed on Mumbai Metro Line 3 (MML-3) is a classic example.

Mumbai Metro is an ambitious project which attempts to provide better infrastructure to a city clogged by traffic. The proposed metro shed on one such line (MML-3) has triggered widespread protests, where NGOs, film stars and the elites of the society have joined hands to oppose the shed. Those opposing the project argue that Maharashtra government is killing the “lungs of the city” and destroying forests and that the move is anti-environment. The protestors are fixed, corrupt or have negligible access to facts. Their protests bear no relationship with truth. What must worry us all is the misinformation being spread in the name of environmental awareness. The campaign against MML-3 project has been ridden with several lies, inaccuracies, vested interests and political agendas. These “activists” are not talking numbers or facts. Their pitch is based on emotion, not calculation. Such theatrics are only hurting the real concerns over the environment.

Saving trees is not the ultimate solution:

There is a popular misconception that trees are the ultimate solution to all our environmental problems. Although this is partly correct, it is certainly not the ultimate solution. If we just consider the MML-3 line, if the amount of pollution created by current vehicles is to be reduced to come at par of the metro, Mumbai would need more than 2 crore trees for which there is no space in the city.

In terms of the environment, mass transit is always better than private vehicles. When you build the metro, you are allowing literally lakhs of people to switch from polluting autos, cars and two-wheelers to a clean, environment friendly form of transport. MML-3 will carry 17 lakh passengers every day and thereby take 6.5 lakh vehicle trips off the road which will reduce 2.61 lakh Tons CO2 pollution every year. It will save 3.54 lakh litres of fuel per day, that saves Rs 3.5 crores a day in fuel cost. Tree cutting may cause temporary strain to the environment but the benefits of MML-3 in terms of reduction in pollution, reduction in traffic congestion and saving of lives substantially outweigh this environmental strain. Building a Metro is thus a net positive for the environment.

The reduction in fossil fuel consumption will lead to a reduction of emissions by an incredible 6,800 tonnes per annum whereas felling of trees for the metro car shed will lead to emission of 50,000 kg (50 tonnes) of carbon annually. The temporary strain on the environment caused by cutting of 2700 trees at Aarey Milk Colony in terms of CO2 sequestration, will be compensated just by 4 days of Metro Line 3 train operations and lifetime damage will be compensated by 80 days of Metro Line 3 train operations.

As per a press release MMRC had already completed plantation of 17,000 plants on a land parcel at SGNP, and had planned to plant 20,900 additional trees in coordination with Director SGNP. The Harit Maharashtra (Green Maharashtra) drive which had been initiated by the Devendra Fadnavis government in 2016 had plans to plant over 50 crore trees. However, the club class environmentalists are least bothered, as hypocritical theatrics is their only fetish. The misinformation being spread about the Devendra Fadnavis government being anti-environment must worry us all.

Related: Maha Vikas Aghadi: Being Efficiently Inefficient

United Nations Framework for Climate Change (UNFCC):

The MML-3 project is registered with the United Nations Framework for Climate Change (UNFCC). The High Court also took notice of this fact. According to UNFCC, “the proposed transportation system is more efficient compared to the traditional means of transport in the baseline, the project activity achieves emission reductions through improved efficiency in the transportation achieved and calculated per passenger-kilometre. On average, metro system has lower GHG emissions per passenger-kilometre than those used in the absence of the project activity, hence, results in GHG emission reductions.”

Aarey is a grazing land, not a forest:

Aarey Milk Colony land belongs to Dairy Development Department, Govt. of Maharashtra. The National Green Tribunal (NGT), Bombay High Court as well as the Supreme Court have examined and rejected this claim by activists who wanted to portray Aarey as a forest land.

The entire Aarey Milk Colony is spread across 1287 Ha land of which only 25% is under tree cover. Of 1287 Ha only 30 Ha has been allotted for the Metro shed, of which 5 Ha land will be retained. It should be interesting to know that about 333.50 Ha of Aarey is already occupied by Govt. Dairy, Poultry, multiple cowsheds & patches of grassland. It also has multiple institutions including SRPF, Force One, Konkan Agri University, Film city etc. & also housing colonies, SRA schemes & many slum pockets. The Metro shed land is surrounded by 3 major arterial roads carrying more than 1 lakh vehicles per day.

There are a total of 3691 trees on the proposed Car Shed land of which 1045 trees are being retrained. Out of the remaining 2646 trees, 461 trees are to be transplanted. Experts suggest 100% success rate for such transplantation. It is pertinent to note that of the 2185 trees that are to be cut, 1169 trees (47%) are exotic having minimal ecological benefit. The area contains trees of species like the Subabul which cause more harm than benefit to the environment. Species like the Subabul have capacity to kill other plants that grow adjacent to it thus endangering native species trees as well.

Going further, to neutralize the negative impact, the Metro authority (MMRC) has planted 14,346 trees with 6”x 12” girth and 12 -15 feet height of native variety and also planted 9,500 trees as per the Forest Department norms under CSR. Thus, total 23,846 trees have been planted and maintained at different locations including the degraded areas of Borivali National Park. Similarly, 13,000 additional trees will also be planted.

Pic(from left): 1-The proposed car shed is in a miniscule section of the Aarey colony. Activists claiming that the car shed will destroy the “lungs of the city” clearly have little understanding of the geography or have obvious ulterior motives. 2-For decades construction permissions were given to private and government entities. Was no harm caused to the “lungs of the city” then? The Film City is spread across 520 acres. The metro car shed will be 75 acres. 3-Satellite images clearly show that the land chosen for the car shed is degraded with sparse vegetation. In fact, only 25% of the entire Aarey colony is under tree cover.

Car shed will cause flooding of Mithi river is a myth:

Of the total 30 Ha only 7.5 Ha of land will be concretized. Remaining 22.5 Ha i.e 75% land will be unpaved and will allow rainwater to directly seep into the ground. All water ways passing through this land towards Mithi will be properly channelized.

Alternative sites for the shed are not viable:

So-called environment NGOs claimed to have provided MMRC with alternate viable sites for the car shed. NGOs never approached MMRC or showed any willingness to understand the facts. They did file an interlocutory application in the Supreme Court (SC) regarding this. The MMRC proved to the court the non-feasibility of these locations and the SC dismissed the protestor’s application.

At DPR stage, 4 sites — Mahalaxmi Race Course, MMRC ground in BKC, Kalina University and Aarey Milk Colony locations were studied for feasibility. The DPR clearly mentions the reasons for non-feasibility of these locations barring the Aarey Milk Colony. Besides, in 2015, the technical committee studied 5 more sites — Backbay Reclamation Colaba, Mumbai Port Trust, Dharavi, Saritpur Nagar and Kanjurmarg.

Of all studies, Aarey Milk Colony and Kanjurmarg were found suitable. Even if Kanjurmarg site would have been chosen, a smaller shed of 16 stabling lines would have had to be setup at the Aarey Milk Colony which would also entail cutting of 1300 trees. Shifting of car depot from Aarey Milk Colony to Kanjurmarg would also be financial burdensome for State Govt. as the line that will have to be extended for another 10 Kms is not part of JICA funding. Besides, Kanjurmarg land is under litigation and there has been a status quo order against the State Govt. The govt. waited for one and a half years for the courts to vacate the order without any luck. If the land at Kanjurmarg is proved to be privately owned then the additional burden of acquiring this land to the tune of Rs 5200 crores would also be a burden on the State Govt. and to that effect a burden on the taxpayers. In addition, metro tracks would still have had to pass through Aarey even if the car shed was shifted to Kanjurmarg. Additional trees to make way for the track from Aarey to Kanjurmarg would also be felled.

In fact, after the Uddhav Thackeray – Aaditya Thackeray led MVA government came to power, a committee headed by additional chief secretary (finance) was again instituted to examine feasibility of the car shed to be shifted to Kanjurmarg. Members of the committee were handpicked by Uddhav Thackeray himself. The committee report stated that stopping work on car shed at Aarey is not right, legal and not at all practical. This committee report was conveniently hidden from the public eye.

Related: Maha Vikas Aghadi and the Politics of Regression

Saving Lives:

In July 2019, Savita Naik, a 30-year-old woman from Dombilvi died after falling from an overcrowded local train in Mumbai. Two days after this incident, Shiv Kumar Vallabh, a 26-year-old man died in a similar incident. ^[¹^] Facts mention that at least 10 commuters die daily on the railway tracks having fallen off the overcrowded local trains. That is around 3000 – 4000 deaths per year. According to the railway data, in 65 years, the passenger load on Mumbai’s suburban rail system grew more than eight times, while train capacity grew about three times. Metro network will also reduce the crowd on the mainland railways by 25%.

In this critical situation, where thousands of people are losing their lives every year, there is an urgent need to get more trains running in the city. Metro will help save precious lives of these many people.

Cost Escalation:

The Committee setup by Uddhav Thackeray said shifting the car shed would lead to a cost escalation of Rs 22,000 crore. Just shifting of the car shed would cost more than Rs 200 crore. Another Rs 100 crore spent on the Aarey project would have gone waste if the shed was shifted to Kanjurmarg.

The original cost of the project was Rs 23,000 crore but the delay caused by the litigation and Uddhav Thackeray – Aaditya Thackeray’s decision to shift the car shed to Kanjurmarg has resulted in a cost increase to Rs 37,000 crore. That is Rs 14,000 crore of public money wasted to satiate personal ego.

The inordinate delay caused by the inept Uddhav Thackeray – Aaditya Thackeray led MVA government cost great financial losses to the taxpayer. In an ideal situation the duo should be made to pay for these damages.

Conclusion:

Romanticizing pictures of people hugging trees whilst ignoring the long-term impact of projects has reduced the environmental campaigns to a pitiful circus of sham ideas.

In January 2020, right under the nose of the Uddhav Thackeray – Aaditya Thackeray led MVA government, 700 trees were axed to make way for a golf course and 17 residential towers on Palm Beach Road. No celebrities were seen holding placards.

Environmentalism in India has come a long way. It started as genuine activism but quietly transitioned into page-3 glamorama and has now been reduced to mindless hogwash. The deceitful fabrication of narratives to stall critical development projects is not just hurting India’s growth story but harming honest environment concerns as well.

Tags: Devendra Fadnavis, Shiv Sena, Maha Vikas Aghadi, Maharashtra, Infrastructure