On Camera: Leopard Strays Into Residential Building In Mumbai’s Aarey Colony; Netizens Concerned Over Maha Govt’s Move To Resume Metro-Car Shed Project

Mumbai: Days after new government in Maharashtra, led-by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde decided to revive the contentious Mumbai Metro car-shed in the eco-sensitive Aarey Colony forests, a video has gone viral on social media in which a leopard could be seen straying into a residential building located in Mumbai’s ‘green lung’. The feline jumped the boundary wall of the building in Aarey Colony to enter its premises on early Friday morning and soon walked out of its main gate.

The leopard’s entry and exit were captured on CCTV cameras installed at the building, footage of which is widely sheared on social media, with many netizens commenting that the building is the real abode of leopards.

Though the spotting of leopards in the Aarey Colony was not a one-off incident, many green activists have expressed concerns over the Maharashtra government’s recent move to resume the construction of a metro car shed in the forest area and held protests against the project on Sunday.

Watch The Video HERE:

Activity of Leopard in Aarey Milk Colony near our area is common.???? Concern is we are encroaching into their habitat. Royal Palms is a housing society in Aarey Forest ???? https://t.co/RcIspL0YRo

— Dipak Pujari (@PujariDipak) July 1, 2022

Aarey Colony Forests and Metro Car-Shed Project?

In the first cabinet meeting after their swearing-in ceremony late on Thursday, Shinde and his deputy Devendra Fadnavis decided to give a push to various infrastructure projects, including taking measures to bring back the Mumbai Metro-3 car-shed project to the Aarey Colony jungles.

Environmentalists and the people of Mumbai had strongly protested the car-shed at Aarey Colony and even staged demonstrations against the earlier BJP government headed by Fadnavis in October 2019 when over 2,000 trees were chopped down in a single night using the police force.

Listing to the demands of the protestors, former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, his son and ex-Environment Minister Aditya Thackeray had scrapped the project and shifted it to the Kanjurmarg salt pans site — which the then Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party had opposed strongly.

Later, following issues pertaining to the Kanjurmarg land ownership raised by the Centre, the car-shed for the crucial 33-km long Metri line remains stuck in litigation.

One of the last surviving green spots in the city, the lush Aarey Colony is spread over more than 3,000 acres with 27 tribal villages and harbours a rich flora and fauna including leopards, and serves as a buffer between Mumbai and the adjacent Sanjay Gandhi National Park.