How Green is my City: Save Aarey

Have you ever ridden in Aarey??? Have you ever run in Aarey??? Have your ever breathe the air in Aarey???

Aarey with its slopes and twists and turns offers challenges to runners and riders alike. If slopes are your thing and you love a challenge, then Aarey is the place for you. Running up the slope can fill you with breathless exhilaration. The cool breeze on your face, fills your lungs with air so pure that running up and down can be quite orgasmic.

The air in Aarey is pure and refreshing, unlike any place in Mumbai, apart from the Borivali National Park. It refreshes you and fills your heart and soul with unbridled joy. And the smell from the tabelas just adds to it, you don’t even mind it.

Everywhere you look you see Green foliage, the colour that symbolises growth, harmony, freshness and fertility, with a strong emotional correspondence to safety. No wonder Aarey is called the Green Lung of the city. 

Sadly the Green that our politicians and builders see is the Green of Greed and envy. Under the pretext of development they are looking at making the most money they can from land grabbing. Building a car shed is just an excuse for their ulterior motive. Overheard that they want to make a zoo in Aarey. If they can’t even take care of the existing Jijamata Udayan, which is in a sad condition, how will they look after another zoo.

Don’t get me wrong, I am all for development, but let not development come at the cost of our health and future. The BMC has put signage saying “Green Mumbai Clean Mumbai”. Sadly when you keep felling trees for any frivolous reasons then where will the Green be in Mumbai. At this rate there may come a situation where the only tree you would see would be in a tree museum and you would need to pay to see them.

Today it may be just be a patch of land, but this could be start of the land grab. Neither Aarey nor Sanjay Gandhi National Park is safe from the scrupulous greed of man. 

We may complain about animal attacks, but if we are encroaching their territory and cutting off their food supply, then where should they go? Just like man, when he has used up the resources of one place, moves to the next place, or when they move to greener pastures, these animals are doing just that. 

I know of many groups, many friends who are involved in these groups, who are in the fight to Save Aarey, fighting the good fight, organising peaceful protest, mobilising people through social media and through WhatsApp groups, organising runs, discussion forums and talks, educating people, trying to awaken people to the importance of having tree cover, the importance of Aarey to Mumbai. Hopefully we can awaken to their effort. We don’t want our future generations to ask us how Green was our city.

We all need to come together to do our bit not just to Save Aarey or the trees, but to save our future. We are already experiencing the effects of global warming, preventing the destruction of our forest lands would be a step in the right direction. 

We need to Save Aarey for better, Green future.