Last year, a huge controversy broke out over the then, Maharashtra government’s decision to cut down trees at Aarey - a vast swathe of green with around five lakh trees and home to a wide variety of animals and birds - to build a car shed for the Metrorail project.
On Sunday, around 800 acres of land in Mumbai’s Aarey have been declared a reserve forest, Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Uddhav Thackeray said. He added that that the construction of the controversial car shed for a Metrorail project in the area would be shifted to Kanjurmag.
The Chief Minister also directed the withdrawal of all police cases filed against Aarey protesters - a move that was announced in December last year as well. The cases relate to those filed against people who tried to stop the authorities from cutting down the trees.
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