Oct 6, 2019
Greta was right. You wronged us, Ashwini.
My earlier article is 180 degrees opposite. I had questioned the motivation of the radical left on pushing a 16 year old girl with conditions as the champion of the cataclysm. Well, logical reasoning against this approach is that poverty alleviation and development trumps ecological priorities. I feel that, in a matter of a week, I was wrong.
Greta had plead in the UN Climate gathering that the high and the mighty had snatched her childhood and there is nothing right, but a complacent & lip servicing attitude towards any such climatic climax — where Planet Earth would cross a point of no return if such attitudes continue to prevail.
The person who opened my eyes was Ashwini Bhide, the Managing Director of Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited ( right top in the cover picture) , a company that aims to build and operate the Mumbai Metro. Now, an active twitter user https://twitter.com/AshwiniBhide, she professes that she and Mumbai Metro has planned about 10000 trees in lieu of cutting 2700 trees in a small forest cover called ‘Aarey Colony’ right in the northern suburbs of Mumbai.
I personally had to commute through this land ( check the left bottom picture) for 4 years. I have had weekend runs — it is such a lush green pocket, right in the middle of the maze of builds. It takes a simple view that this space is covered with enough diverse flora and fauna, that is a deemed forest — if not a forest. Commuters just cross over, and one can feel the pollution free air amidst the choking situation elsewhere in Mumbai city.
Now, people in Mumbai, a fair amount of them, feel in a similar way. Again, if I had to summarize, it is worth a fight to save Aarey. The story goes that before this case, while the approval for tree cutting process — a sanction from Tree Authority was manipulated to ensure that the experts on the panel voted for the axing of the 2700 trees. Later they backed out.
And this Indian Administrative Service ( IAS) officer tasked with running the Mumbai Metro has approached Honorable Mumbai High Court and won a case, which allows them to cut the trees.
And the Mumbai High Court judgement itself came on this Friday evening, and the powers that be, swung with ruthlessness — mechanized bulldozers cut the trees without any remorse. About 200 trees fell in the first onslaught. The Mumbai Police stood guard and imposed Section 144 curfew, and few activists arrested.
The Honorable Mumbai High Court declared Aarey as a non-forest, and since it was on Government land, and for the larger good — the Mumbai Metro would remove more enough CO2 than Aarey can save. And then, the twitter message came from Ms. Bhide.
Ms. Ashwini Bhide has a job to do. Admitted.
Ms. Ashwini Bhide runs an organization that aims to create a fantastic pollution free mass transport system. Admitted.
Ms. Ashwini Bhide won the case in court of law.
This may make her right. This does not make her a good person. Beyond the labyrinth of technical definitions of what makes a forest and what she is set out to do — there is something those activists are fighting about — it is an ecosystem that they grew with, and their children won’t see. Aarey will become a ‘green legend’. It is a standing symbol of what the doomsdayers talk about — the might of the law and the Government will kill the small vestiges of the human soul — Aarey is about that.
“A forest ecology is a delicate one. If the forest perishes, its fauna may go with it. The Athshean word for world is also the word for forest.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Word for World is Forest
A forest is a complex ecosystem that manifests over a period of time, fostered by mother nature. You don’t need data to feel that if you have ever walked to the last vestige of nature in your neighbourhood and suddenly it is gone — replaced a swanky modern infrastructure piece. This vestige of soul can never be replaced by planting trees elsewhere, Ms. Ashwini Bhide.
“Burn the forests if you will, but you will only scorch your own lungs.”
― Anthony T. Hincks
You may have won the battle, but lost the soul and the hearts of those people who visit Aarey every week. Not sure how the saga of Aarey will end. But, you have wronged us. And Greta was right.
~Ashok Subramanian
