How Manufactured Opinion is Aggravating the Aarey Colony Issue
Written on October 26th, 2019 by {"login"=>"jcbitshyd", "email"=>"journal@hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in", "display_name"=>"Journal Club, BPHC", "first_name"=>"", "last_name"=>""}In this day and age, discourse and awareness about global warming and environmental protection are at an all-time high. However, many people are under the opinion that the only way to combat global warming is to simply plant more trees. Not only is this a dangerous generalization, but there are scenarios where this simply does not work. There is a need to balance environmental conservation with general progress and development as well. One example of this is the ongoing Aarey Milk Colony issue in Mumbai.
Spread over 1600 hectares, The Aarey Milk Colony, an erstwhile government-owned dairy farm has been dubbed as the 'lungs' of Mumbai. The presence of Aarey makes Mumbai one of the few metropolises in the world with an actual forested area surrounded by a sea of concrete. It is a significant part of Mumbai's ever-shrinking green cover. However, controversy ensued when the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC) planned to construct a metro rail depot on 30 hectares of Aarey Colony land. This depot serves Metro Line 3, a 33.5-kilometer line that aims to decongest road traffic on the busy Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ corridor. The government zeroed in on this plot after due consideration of other alternatives. Another option would have been to construct the depot in nearby Kanjurmarg but it would have entailed an additional cost of around 5000 crores.
The decision to construct the depot was bitterly contested by residents and environmental activists as they felt the green cover of the Aarey colony was being destroyed even though the allocated area was less than 2% of the total area. The problem here is that the positive effects of the metro network are being ignored. Mumbai has a population of 1.84 crore citizens, 80% of whom commute daily. With these massive numbers, the need for cost-effective and efficient transport is immense. The aging Mumbai local rail network has the highest passenger density in the world, ferrying over 80 lakh commuters daily. The rapidly rising population also leads to a similar increase in the number of privately-owned vehicles in the city. The road network of Mumbai is quickly reaching a saturation point due to this influx of vehicles. These vehicles are also a major source of the emissions in Mumbai and there is an urgent need to reduce the amount of time cars spend on the choking road network of Mumbai. The Mumbai metro is expected to significantly relieve the local train and road networks upon completion. In a recent case brought to the Bombay High Court concerning the matter, the court ruled in favour of the government. It argued that since the MMRC had already planted 20900 trees at the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, with the trees having a 95% survival rate, there was an adequate compensation with more than 7 trees being planted for every tree that was felled[1]. Furthermore, a report by the Japan International Cooperative Agency (JICA), a financier of the project, estimated a reduction of 5.54 lakh road trips daily by the year 2031, which will lead to significantly lower levels of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and other particulate matter emissions. The Colaba-SEEPZ metro line has also been recognized by the United Nations as a harbinger of clean development by being a part of the Mass Rapid Transit System Program under the Clean Development Mechanism of the United Nations Framework Convention of Climate Change. The report states a reduction of 261,968 tonnes of carbon equivalent per annum[2]. These reductions are far greater in magnitude than the carbon emissions arising from the production of electricity to power the metro network. Therefore, data overwhelmingly suggests that the metro network will not only relieve pressure on existing transport infrastructure in Mumbai but also reduce the carbon footprint of the city in the process. In this regard, the government seems to have accepted the 30 acres of forested land as an acceptable casualty.
In this present situation, the government has had to do a delicate balancing act between the concerns of environmental activists regarding the loss of green cover and the general welfare of the city.
People need to understand that there are more ways to carbon sequestration than planting trees. This assumption comes from Social Media as well as other uninformed sources and has spread quickly. While it is clear that trees are an important asset, in stalling, climate change, it is not our best or only asset. There is a dangerous trend of people attempting to sway others by using incorrect and incomplete knowledge as well as using emotional appeals. Motivated by this, people push back strongly against what they perceive as ‘downright evil’. And in this mess, the genuine arguments and logic get drowned out in a wave of emotion. While there are many arguments against the decision that the government took in the Aarey colony, the fact remains the government ultimately chose the way it did because of proper reasons as well. The greater issue is the manufactured opinion being created in people nowadays. This external unnatural motivation is causing them to cultivate an opinion they may not really stand by. Currently, many citizens are protesting against the felling of trees without paying heed to these benefits. This prevents them from analyzing the situation at hand and leads them to rally for a cause with only half the information. There can only be a proper discourse on any topic when all the participants are free of manufactured opinion.
Footnotes
[1]-http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/files/file/Aarey-Judgment-Tree-Authority-Zoru-Bathena-Plea-Bombay-HC.pdf
[2]-https://cdm.unfccc.int/ProgrammeOfActivities/cpa_db/LUG7W2MP9CFDZOT56B8HXN10VA4RSI/view