Climate Villain: Fadnavis killing Aarey forests just for his ego

Opinion | As soon as the government changed in Maharashtra, the decision of the Uddhav Thackeray government to not build a Metro car shed at Aarey Forest was changed by the new Eknath Shinde government. The Chief Minister issued orders to build Colaba Bandra Seepz Metro Car Shed in Aarey Colony as planned in 2019 under the Fadnavis government.

Environmental activists of Mumbai were constantly opposing this project, after which the Uddhav Thackeray government decided to shift the car shed by taking a decision in favor of environmental activists. But after changing the government, once again the decision has been changed and people are agitating on the streets.

The protesting activists have accused the government of felling of trees in Aarey Colony despite the stay of the Supreme Court. While the BMC says that trees are being trimmed due to the monsoon, it is a regular exercise.

'Aarey Protest an International conspiracy'

The supporters of the government have started calling the people agitating to save the Aarey forests Naxalites. They say that most of the people protesting are from Left parties and there could be a huge international conspiracy in this. Such tactics are now being used to suppress every protest in India. However, there were huge protests in the previous govt. too.

Climate Villain

If the Uddhav Thackeray government had changed the location of the Aarey car shed project, it means that this car shed can be built elsewhere. But why the new government ordered to cut the forests again is a matter to think about.

It is being told that the decision of Devendra Fadnavis was changed by Uddhav Thackeray, so Fadnavis wants to take its revenge by getting this project rebuilt in Aarey itself. It can be said that the environment is paying the price for the ego of these politicians.

Mumbai to Ahmedabad bullet train has also been given a green signal in Maharashtra as soon as the BJP government is formed. This project will be taken forward rapidly. Let us tell you that the bullet train project is one of the dream projects of Prime Minister Modi.

However, if we look at the track record of the Modi government, then it has given a green signal to all such projects where there was a possibility of huge damage to the environment. These include the Char Dham road project of Uttarakhand, the Kishau Dam project in Uttarakhand Himachal, raising the height of the Gandhi Sagar dam, cutting of Hasdeo and Gundalpur forests, and construction of transshipment port in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. People protested all these projects but the government did not back down.

The re-approval of Aarey also means that the government does not want to think about the environment before development.

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