Environmental organisations called for a peaceful protest at Aarey forest on Sunday morning and hundreds of Mumbaikars gathered at the picnic point in the area. Pic/Shadab Khan

Environmentalists are up in arms after the Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his deputy Devendra Fadnavis overturned the previous Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government`s decision to relocate the proposed Mumbai Metro Line-3 car shed from Aarey Colony. Pic/Shadab Khan

Apart from leopards, some 300 different varieties of flora and fauna are found in the Aarey forest, located in suburban Goregaon and adjacent to the Sanjay Gandhi National Park. Pic/Shadab Khan

According to environment activists, the forest not only provides fresh air to people of the city, but it also a key habitat for the wildlife, including some endemic species. The forest has some five lakh trees, and also has a couple of rivers and some lakes flowing through it. Pic/Shadab Khan

The decision to set up the car shed in the wooded Aarey area was opposed by environmental groups, as it involved cutting down hundreds of trees. Considering this, the Thackeray government had shifted the car shed site to Kanjurmarg, but it entered a legal dispute. Pic/Shadab Khan

"Our demand is that we don’t want any car shed in Aarey. Stop blocking the construction of  Metro car shed on government-owned land in Kanjurmarg. The government should build an integrated shed on Kanjur land to save Aarey forest," said a nature lover. Pic/Shadab Khanic/Shadab Khan