Metro-III: Bereaved South Mumbai residents perform trees' funeral

The invitation for the puja for trees at Aarey tomorrow

SoBo will mourn its oldest, dearest friends on Saturday evening. As part of ongoing protests against the merciless felling of trees in Colaba for the Metro-III corridor, a group of citizens took out a mock funeral procession of a "butchered" tree trunk from YB Chavan Centre at Nariman Point at 4.30 pm.

The procession will end at the Metro worksite near Chur­chgate. Participants will place the trunk at the site, offer their prayers and leave.

An obituary circulating among WhatsApp groups and other networking sites reads, "SAD DEMISE-With profound grief we convey the passing of a large number of Mumbai's giant, decades-old, iconic trees. These lifelong friends of ours will be deeply mourned and forever loved, remembered and missed by our children and grandchildren."

A total of 2,800 trees will be affected by the Colaba-Bandra Seepz Metro corridor. Of these, 1,100 trees will be chopped and 1,700 transplanted.

A pamphlet released by the group on the procession

Keeping up the heat against the hacking of trees, tribals of Aarey, along with NGO Aarey Conservation Group, will perform a havan and a puja tomorrow evening for the protection of trees at Tapeshwar Mahadev Mandir in Aarey Colony, where over 2,000 trees stand to be uprooted for the proposed Metro car shed.

"The programme has been organised to celebrate Aarey as a rich forest, and to seek protection of all trees in Mumbai. All religions teach us to protect nature, but we have forgotten this. The programme will allow people to come together and fight for the survival of trees," said Stalin D from NGO Vanashakti.

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