Activist Abhay Bavishi of Save Aarey group has been detained to question authorities
Akankshya Mukherjee, Mumbai Uncensored, 24th January 2022 :
Mumbai Green Activist and member of the Save Aarey Group, Abhay Bavishi was detained to question by the authorities to question when a peepal tree was hacked in Gaothan Area of Vile Parle (E). The heritage tree is said to be about 60 years old, which was fully chopped by the East ward officials of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
Abhay Bavishi says “I had gone to the site today after hearing that the big peepal tree was about to be fully cut by the K-East ward officials. The municipal gardens official, Pradeep Jadhav, had showed me the tree cutting order which was dated from 2018. I tried to reason with the civic officials that I had been writing to the BMC since 2017-18 to not cut this particular tree. Green activists have also filed RTI applications to find out why a heritage tree in the gaothan area in Vile Parle (east) had been destroyed”.
He further adds “Police told me to go to the ward office to complain. However, I reasoned that by the time I could do this, this grand old tree would have been hacked to death. That is when the cops forcibly pushed me inside their vehicle, while this tree was cut”.
Another activist Zoru Bhathena, in a tweet, questioned the cutting of the tree. In a tweet, he said, “BMC KE ward is cutting a roadside tree at Vile Parle phatak on a 2018 permission issued to BMC to BMC itself. They claim tree is coming in way of traffic If traffic was not obstructed for so many years how come in 2022 it is obstructing?”.
Another local activist, Jude Dsouza said “It is very suspicious why the civic ward office decided to execute the 2018 order now. Over the years, we have also filed RTIs on this issue in order to save this peepal tree; but did not receive a proper formal reply. We are now appealing to environment minister Aditya Thackeray to take action against those who killed this heritage tree, since it is nearly 100 years old”.
While the assistant commissioner of the K-East ward, Mr Prashant Sapkale was unavailable for comment, the civic garden official, Mr Pradeep Jadhav told “I cannot comment on this subject to the media. You can contact the ward office in this regard”.
