Mumbai: Environmental activist Zoru Bhathena, spearheading the Save Aarey Forest campaign, has brushed away the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA)'s claims of having planted 51,151, in two months. Chopping down these figures works out to a sapling being planted every minute in a 12-hour workday.
Bhathena said, "It is very easy to say that they (the MMRDA) have planted thousands of trees. But where are these trees, have they survived, are they going to make it?
Supposedly, if I plant 100 saplings, it is unlikely that every single one will survive. So when the authorities are well aware of the fact, why are they lying and giving us these numbers?"
The authority held a press meeting on Wednesday to inform about its tree plantation drive, undertaken in lieu of the trees felled for ongoing infrastructure projects.
The drive was undertaken on 46 hectares of land in Gotheghar at Shilpata in Thane. Of the 51,151 saplings, ten thousand have been planted in Titwala and Kalyan, the MMRDA said.