Today is World Environment Day, and Mumbai is marking the day with a slew of programmes about environmental awareness, even as activists in the city are raising the volume in their protest against the number of trees that are on the chopping block for the ongoing Metro work. On Friday, activists in south Mumbai even held a funeral for trees that were felled for Metro work.

Green warriors seem to be in a perennial battle with builders and the government. While the city needs to expand its infrastructure to absorb the teeming millions, activists claim this is often at the cost of open spaces, causing ecological imbalance in the city. The obvious impact, of course, global warming, but the effect is also witnessed in incidents like animals straying into human settlements that were once their habitat.