The process of cutting nearly 3,000 trees in Aarey, which began under the cover of darkness on Friday night, is not illegal, Mumbai Metro chief Ashwini Bhide has claimed, labelling as “false propaganda” concerns that a mandatory 15-day notice period between grant of approval to cut trees and the actual cutting was not met.
Activists were seen protesting passionately. They had come in large numbers in their SUVs, and even called up some vanity vans there as they had to stay there for a longer time. One activist named Shugato Malik went a step further when he tried to stop breathing to ensure that he doesn’t release any CO2 in the atmosphere. He did so for some minutes but fell down after that. He was near his car and his driver saw him fall.
Rushed to the hospital in an ambulance, Shugato was labelled ‘brought dead’ by the doctor. Shugato was a Bollywood movie star who was always against the cutting of trees.
In fact he used the wood from the trees which he had planted 100 years ago for the furniture of his house and always reached on time for any environment protest as he had the best SUV with him.
