It was house full at the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) Committee Room at the headquarters in south Mumbai on Tuesday as Mangal Prabhat Lodha, MLA and minister of skills, employment, entrepreneurship and innovation, led a meeting with the administration and citizens about the “proposal of the municipal corporation for removal and replanting of trees,” to increase the capacity of the reservoir in the Hanging Gardens area of Malabar Hill. The overall aim was to give suggestions for alternatives to the location or overall proposal as the current plan entails significant environmental degradation.

The beginning

Lodha started the meeting by acknowledging that some residents met him earlier too. The MLA said, “I spoke to Chief Minister (CM) Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday morning about the importance of finding an alternative. That is the crux.”