THE LUNGS OF MUMBAI

AAREY FOREST

Over 2000 acres of land it’s the one of only few forests in
Mumbai, thus referred as the “Lungs of Mumbai”. The
forest is a neighborhood situated in Goregaon. The
government wanted to make a “Car shed” for metro, which
resulted in people protesting for forest not to be cutted
down On 3 September 2020, the Maharashtra government
declared one fifth of the Forest, an area of approximately
800 acres, as a reserved forest.
AAREY FOREST
FLORA AND FAUNA

Aarey Forest has an array of wildlife and

several species of insects, butterflies and birds.
It has at least 86 species of trees and 22
species of birds. There are about 290 species
of wildlife in Aarey Forest including 5 such
species of animals. These vulnerable animals
include leopards, Rusty spotted cat, Sambar
deer, Alexandrine Parakeet and Red-wattled
Lapwing.
SAMBAR DEER

They attain a height of 102 to 160 cm at the shoulder and may

weigh as much as 546 kg (1,204 lb), though more typically 100 to
350 kg. Head and body length varies from 1.62 to 2.7 m , with a
22 to 35 cm tail. Females are smaller than males.The large,
rugged antlers are typically up to 110 cm long in fully adult
individuals. As with most deer, only the males have antlers. The
coat can be from yellowish brown to dark grey in colour, and it is
usually uniform in colour. The tail is relatively long for deer, and
is generally black above with a whitish underside.
LEOPARDS
Aarey is known to have potential to show human-leopard
co-existence in an urban setting. There are 4 adult females. The
leopards are monitored by camera traps, first set up in 2015.
Seven leopards have been rescued. While Aarey has been
infamous for leopard attacks newly released leopards in a new
environment have caused attacks. “Vidya”, an ecologist, pointed
out that leopards being around was never a big issue among
residents of these areas.
CONCLUSION

If Aarey Forest was cutted down the trees will

not be able to hold the water thus, resulting
flood which would had a huge impact on the
ecosystem which would be unbalanced and had
fallen down resulting in extinction of many
unique and endangered species also the air
quality would become worse.