As if the depleting green cover was not enough, the new Mumbai Metro line is going to claim more. Around 297 trees on road from Gulmohar Road in Vile Parle to DN Nagar in Andheri is going to cut down. Along with the traffic snarls, the upcoming Metro 2B line will be decreasing the greenery in the city. An RTI application revealed that trees along 4.4 km long road will be hacked as it falls in the way of the upcoming metro line. The stretch has a total of 388 trees of which 297 will be cut by Metro officials.

According to a report in The Times of India, a reply to an RTI filed by activist Zoru Bhatena revealed the details. MMRDA which is the implementing agency for the transport project last month sought permission to have the trees cut. Bhatena said, "The Metro 2B route has about 25 large trees along the centre of the road and over 100 smaller trees. Permission has been sought to remove almost 300. It could only mean that shade-providing trees from roadsides will have to go."

Talking about the cutting down of trees for Metro, MMRDA spokesperson Dilip Kawathkar said, "This is the initial list and the final number of how many trees to be cut or transplanted will be declared after the approval of the tree authority. We will also have to do compensatory tree plantation for every tree that is cut."

Meanwhile, a petition before the Mumbai high court challenging Metro 2B work is to be held on June 12. The court had recorded a statement by MMRDA that it was "doing digging work on the roads only for the purpose of soil testing and till the next date, no further work of Metro will be commenced".

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 11, 2018 04:59 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).