Mumbai’s ongoing infrastructure expansion has led to a striking challenge: the city is running out of space to plant trees lost to major projects. Large-scale developments such as the Northbound Coastal Road, the Goregaon-Mulund Link Road (GMLR), and the Vidyavihar East-West bridge have resulted in extensive tree cutting, pushing the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to look beyond city boundaries to meet its compensatory plantation obligations.
With limited land available within Mumbai, the civic body now plans to carry out plantation drives in the wider Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). Officials estimate that 30–40 hectares of land are required for this purpose. “We need 30 to 40 hectares of land if we want to plant trees as compensation. In Mumbai, land of this size is not available,” said Additional Municipal Commissioner Abhijit Bangar. He added that the state government has allowed plantations in locations such as Kalyan and Panvel.
Data from civic authorities highlights the scale of impact. Nearly 1,300 trees are affected by the Versova-Dahisar Coastal Road and the Dahisar-Mira Road bridge works. The GMLR project alone involves the removal of 1,039 trees, requiring approximately 13,000 new plantations as compensation, factoring in the age of the trees cut. Some plantation work has already been carried out near Paspoli along the Mithi river, while additional efforts are planned in Kalyan.
For the Vidyavihar East-West connector, 77 trees are set to be felled and 85 transplanted. To offset this, the BMC has proposed planting 2,227 trees on forest land in Panvel, with a budget of Rs 1.99 crore covering a seven-year maintenance plan.
However, environmentalists have criticised the strategy. Activist Anand Pendharkar raised concerns about the city’s worsening heat island effect, asking, “Will citizens of Mumbai go to Panvel or Kalyan to breathe?”
The Vidyavihar connector project, which began in 2018, has faced delays due to design revisions and the pandemic, and is now expected to be completed by June 2026.
Source: Mumbai Mirror
