At Mumbai Live, we have started a new informative series that will encompass A-Z of Mumbai. In this series, we will highlight one place or thing that people can associate with a particular alphabet and let you know all about it.
Starting with the letter A, we are talking about the Aarey Forest.
Mumbai’s Aarey Milk Colony, with its 1,300 hectares of forest land, is called the ‘last lung of Mumbai. It was in the news for the last two years for the tree felling in the area as there were plans to construct a metro shed for the Metro 3 line. However, now the plan has been put on hold and it is proposed that a metro shed will be constructed at Kanjurmarg.
Aarey forest is an 800-acre forest that was developed as a Milk Colony.
Proposed by Ramon Magsaysay Award winner Dara N. Khurody, the Aarey Milk Colony was brought into existence in 1949. Then-Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru officially inaugurated Aarey by planting a sapling there in 1951 – he believed he was ‘planting the future.’
In 1977, around 200 hectares of Aarey forest were cleared to make space for the Film City. In 2010, the proposed plan to expand the Byculla Zoo to include a night safari route for tourists was put into action. A further 40 acres of forested land was cleared to accommodate this expansion.
Watch our video to know more about this forest. To follow our A-Z series, and watch all our videos, you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
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