Development vs Conservation

As the world goes in for massive development to meet the housing, commuting, travelling, food and other living needs of an ever-burgeoning population of Homo-sapiens, the one who suffers is Mother Nature. Be it the forests or other living creatures, they are supposed to play second fiddle to the highly intelligent and greedy Human. This has caused major upheavals of Nature leading to catastrophes never experienced earlier, in terms of frequency, intensity and the geographical spread.

Can all development activities be stalled in a bid to give a fillip to conservation? Can all of us go back to the forests and live in caves?Move from place to place only on foot, rely only on sunlight for heat & light, close down all factories and above all, give up our smart-phones — in short go back to being Cavemen? Even the staunchest environmentalist or conservationist does not say so. What they seek and fight for is that mindless development at the cost of the environment & natural resources should be avoided. Reason is not far to seek– destruction of Mother Nature’s bounties will ultimately have long-term repercussions on mankind, notwithstanding the developments made. So, the intent of those supporting Development and those pitching in for Conservation is the same — Benefit for Mankind: while the former looks at the short & medium term, the latter says please look at the long term…………future generations. The secret is to arrive at a right balance between Development & Conservation. Easier said than done! There are many instances where vested interests under the facade of conservation attempt to stall development. This is a reality the world over especially since NGOs or  other non-profit organisations are excellent vehicles for parking slush funds.Every organisation cannot be painted with the same brush but it takes all types to form NGOs.

The ongoing drama in Mumbai bears testimony to all that has been stated in the earlier paragraphs about the tug-of-war between Development & Conservation. The issue relates to a State Government order for cutting around 2200 trees in Aarey Milk colony to make space for the long-awaited Metro 3 car-shed. Activists of all shapes and sizes have been protesting the felling of trees with some of the Bollywood biggies providing lip-sympathy to the cause. The argument is that Aarey Milk Colony is the ‘green lungs’ of Mumbai and if the same is destroyed in the name of development, severe natural & climatic imbalances will strike Mumbai. They have also protested against the Government trying to cut down the trees in the dead of night to prevent them (the activists) from protesting. Some, who were witness to the cutting spread the word and soon crowds gathered at the site and some people had to be taken into custody.

Those pitching in for building the Metro car-shed here argue that Greater Mumbai which has a population of over 20 million faces massive traffic snarls and time taken for every commute is increasing by the day. The Metro Line will be a major boon to Mumbai and will bring in the much-needed comfort and time-saving to Mumbaikars. Metro is non-polluting and if lesser number of cars come out on the roads, it will further go to reduce pollution. Already due to protests and delays, the cost of the project has gone up to INR 30,000 crores and every further day of delay would cost an additional INR 4 crores. Further out of the trees cut around 20% will be transplanted & for every tree not transplanted, 6 new trees would be planted and geo-tagged. They cite the example of Delhi where this was achieved successfully — both laying down a network of Metro Lines & increase in forested land after cutting some trees during the Metro construction phase.

Cutting trees is always undesirable and must be avoided as far as possible. In my opinion, here is a classic case where the benefits which would accrue to the citizens of Mumbai due to the Metro far outweighs the sadness at the felling of these trees. The arguments in favour of the Metro are as under:

• Metro Rail Corporation of Mumbai has assured that 6 new trees will be planted for every tree felled. It will take time for the trees to grow, yes, but it will also take another 2-3 years for the Metro network to be up and running.Give them a chance.
• The protesters are misleading the public that Aarey Milk Colony is the ‘green lungs’ of Mumbai. They are confusing the citizens between Sanjay Gandhi National Park spread over 11600 hectares which is the ‘green lungs’, while Aarey Milk Colony with an area of 1300 hectares cannot be said to to be so.
• The activists say that  Aarey Milk Colony is forest land. Although it comes under the Forest department, major tracts of land have been leased out to the State, Central governments for various construction activities. In fact private residential complexes like Royal Palms including golf courses are present in Aarey.
• Out of the 1300 hectares of land in Aarey Milk Colony, only 30 hectares have been acquired by the Metro Corporation and the car-shed will be spread over 25 hectares. One can see that it is but a small part of Aarey.
• ABOVE ALL, the cutting of trees follows the decision of the Bombay High Court which rejected the argument of the activists that the Aarey area was ‘forest land’. Any protests against the Court decision would tantamount to ‘ contempt of Court’, especially when the favorite quote of activists, politicians and other celebrities always is ” The Law will take its own course”. See legal redress, go on appeal but do not create nuisance at the site.

Having said that  two aspects from the State Government’s side are disappointing:

1. Cutting the trees at night. They could well have done it in broad daylight and if problems were anticipated, there could have been tight security.  It would have added more credibility to the Government action.
2. The Minister for Environment in the State Government is Ramdas Kadam of the Shiv Sena. Obviously, he would have been in the know of this tree-cutting decision or even passed orders for the same. Then why is the Shiv Sena leadership protesting the decision now as if they were unaware of it earlier? This adds a political angle to the issue. As stated earlier, some of the NGOs/other non-profit organisations do have other than the stated agenda too. 

MUMBAI NEEDS THE METRO