In 1949, when the northern suburbs of present-day Mumbai were still expanses of forests, farms and villages, the Indian government handed over 1,300 hectares of a forest called Aarey to Bombay’s dairy development board. Under the direction of Dara Khurody, the milk commissioner of Bombay at the time, Aarey was soon transformed into Aarey Milk Colony – home of the grand Bombay Milk Scheme that revolutionised milk production and supply in India.
Khurody won the 1963 Magasaysay award for his work in the dairy industry, and a proud government turned Aarey Milk Colony into a tourist spot.
In the decades that followed, as Mumbai’s concrete jungle exploded all around Aarey and began to encroach the forest, the Milk Colony became a prized expanse of land: prime real estate material for builders, an endangered home for Adivasi villagers and the “last green lung of Mumbai” for environment-conscious citizens.
The latest conflict about development in Aarey pushed the Milk Colony into the national limelight: the state government wanted to build a metro rail car shed on 30 hectares of Aarey land, for which it would need to cut down more than 2,700 trees.
For months, Mumbai residents passionately protested against the state-run Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation or MMRC, but to...
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