A leopard jumped the boundary wall of a residential building in Mumbai’s Aarey Colony and entered the premises. Social media users expressed worries over the Maharashtra government's move to resume the metro car shed project in Aarey that has abundance of wildlife.
After becoming the chief minister of Maharashtra, Eknath Shinde decided to restore the controversial Mumbai Metro car shed in the eco-sensitive Aarey Colony forests. Recently, a video of a leopard emerged on social media. In the video, a leopard can wander into a residential building in Mumbai’s ‘green lung’. The wild cat jumped the boundary wall, entered the premises in Aarey Colony early Friday morning, and walked out of its main gate shortly.
Indian Forest Service officer Susanta Nanda shared the video on the micro-blogging site with the caption, "The original residents of Aaray colony, Mumbai, taking a stroll last night."
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The CCTV cameras installed at the building recorded the leopard’s entry and exit. After watching the video, netizens commented that the building is the actual dwelling of leopards. Because, in the recent past, leopards were often spotted in the Aarey Colony. Several green activists and social media users expressed concern over the state government’s action to resume the construction of a metro car shed in the forest area.
The original residents of Aaray colony, Mumbai, taking a stroll last night pic.twitter.com/tahXBhVzpC
— Susanta Nanda IFS (@susantananda3)After the swearing-in ceremony Maharashtra CM Shinde and his deputy Devendra Fadnavis, in their first cabinet meeting, decided to push various infrastructure projects, including taking adequate steps to bring back the Mumbai Metro-3 car-shed project.
Environmentalists and the Mumbai residents strongly opposed the car shed at Aarey Colony and even staged rallies against the earlier BJP government headed by Devendra Fadnavis in October 2019, when around 2,000 trees were cut down using the police force.
After being shared online, the video accumulated over 174K views and 4639 likes. A user wrote, "This is dangerous. Human beings should not be exposed to such danger is a populated city like Mumbai. The animals should be relocated." Another person commented, "What will be impact of car shed on this wildlife? Can they co-exist?"
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