A day after taking over as Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Uddhav Thackeray put the brakes on the controversial Aarey car shed work and ordered that no trees will be felled until further notice.

“I have ordered to stop the work of the Aarey metro car shed project today. The Metro work will not stop but till the next decision, not a single leaf of Aarey will be cut,” he said at a press conference in Mumbai. On November 15, the  apex Court had extended the interim order by which it had stayed the further cutting of trees in the colony for setting up the Metro car shed.

The Bombay High Court  had in October refused to declare Aarey Colony a forest and declined to quash the Mumbai municipal corporation’s decision to allow felling of over 2,600 trees in the green zone to set up a metro car shed. The same night, more than 2,000 trees were cut in a move that was criticized, with protesters gathering at the forest.

— India Legal Bureau