Thread on Aarey Car shed controversy

Activist have pleaded in the court that the land where trees are to be cut is a reserved forest area and thus govt has no legal right to cut trees at that place

The Bombay High Court in an elaborate judgement has already dismissed the 1/n https://twitter.com/mahiitha24/status/1296112555480379398

petitions that made that case- the govt was given the green signal to move ahead with the project and all the trees that had to be cut to build the car shed have already been cut

The whole made-up controversy is about the cutting of 2100 trees, 44% of them are non-native 2/

or non-indigenous, essentially meaning that they are of no real environmental importance.

As a means to countervail the the "environmental damage" caused, the govt was to plant 7 trees for every tree cut in close proximity.

So, essentially in a country where millions of 3/

of trees are cut every year without any real accountability, it was a benign case which could have potentially transformed the life of ordinary mumbaikar

The trees planted by Govt have shown good survivability- so essentially they were being shifted in close proximity 4/

So, what case do the "environmetal activist"- liberal elites drinking wine & champagne ( or maybe something else- I am oblivious to their elitism ) & those cushy life Bollywodia's actually had except that it was fashionable to virtue-signal their "concern for environment" 5/

A slight discomfort in their cushy lifestyle and all the "concern for environment" would go to trash.

Many made the case that why not shift the place somewhere else- the only feasible place that they could come up with was Kanjurmarg

Kanjurmarg is essentially a marshy land 6/

Not to mention it is a disputed site. Estimates of govt say that they would have to pay as much as 4000 crore to acquire that land.

Moreover, that marshy land had to be leveled- this would take close to 2 years 7/

If we factor in the reduction in carbon footprint for two years thanks to the metro & all the extra construction material needed to build the shed at Kanjurmarg, cutting trees at Aarey would be more environment friendly.

But that thing called Math & cost-benefit analysis is 8/

reserved for those lousy STEM guys- what has it to do with "the great crusaders for environment" ( until it affects them )

While those elites- liberal elites may enjoy a cushy life but for ordinary mumbaikar, their everyday commute is from home to work-place is as arduous as 9/

one can imagine. Here's just a glimpse during peak hours of MSR https://twitter.com/ReSt_AsSuReD2/status/1201437644829290497?s=20

We all love to wine about the inefficiency of our govt, but when they workout something good, the same liberal elites from the society come together to act as an impediment to any developmental activity.

That is exactly what they tried to do with Narmada Dam Project- thankfully

the resolve of the Gujrati ppl defeated those diabolical designs for my state. I cannot even imagine Gujarat without the Narmada Dam- it is the lifeline of Gujarat

Same goes with the Metro in Delhi & same could have happened with the Mumbai Metro n-1/n

However, SS came into power and the rest is history.

This is going to have long term consequences- the message to investors is clear & that India cannot be trusted as an potential investment destination.

It is an unmitigated disasters!

END