While addressing a press conference, Thackeray scion Aaditya opposed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) plan to cut 2700 trees in Aarey for building a metro shed. He said he will not tolerate if Aarey is touched and asked the government to listen to the voice of Mumbaikars.
While making it clear that metro shed is not necessary, Aaditya said that it is about biodiversity, mammals, birds, flies. “By bringing in the metro shed which is not needed, we are destroying the entire city's biodiversity," He said, according to Mumbai Mirror. He further explained that Aarey is the flood plain of Mithi River.
Aaditya, calling the plan of building a metro shed a scam asked, "Today when MMRCL says that without car shed metro is not possible, it comes across as a scam. Who was the consultant? Why were they paid? If they could not find an alternate place. Who are these people, are they even legit consultants? "
Aaditya further said that they want metro but not at the cost of destroying something. Aarey is known as a green lung and home to various rare species.
On Monday, BMC Chief Praveen Pardeshi brushing aside all the suggestions from activists to shift the metro shed to suburban Kangurmarg, defended the decision to cut the 2700 trees. To support his defensive move he stressed that Mumbai had more trees than London, Tokyo and New York.
