January 2020
#Voter , 4055 Views
Uprooted

Photographs By: Rohit Saha

On 11th October, 2019, the citizens of Mumbai faced off against the very leaders they had elected to save the Aarey forest.

Sprawled between Andheri and Goregaon lies the Aarey Forest, known to some as the Aarey Milk Colony. Once a part of Sanjay Gandhi National Park, for the last six decades it has been home to 27 tribes, 86 species of trees and 77 species of birds. This year, the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation, backed by the Maharashtra government, decided to use 3% of Aarey Forest to build a car shed. Over 2700 trees were chosen to be martyred. As the bulldozers and chainsaws of the state marched to Aarey, the people of Mumbai found themselves at odds with the very leaders they had elected. On 11th October, 2019, photographer Rohit Saha was on the ground as Section 144 of the Indian Penal Code was imposed, 100 protesting citizens were detained and 411 fallen trees were carried away into the night.