Here’s what gets uprooted with the felling of mangroves for the bullet train project

The Bombay High Court’s nod for the felling of over 22,000 mangrove trees comes at a cost

Along Mumbai’s expansive coastline of around 150 kilometres, the dense cover of mangroves rises like barriers between the city’s chaos and the calamity entombed in the deep ocean. 

Taking root in salty sediments, the mangroves are synonymous with the famous or infamous indomitable spirit of the city: they can survive hostile environmental conditions like low oxygen and extreme salt concentration, their succulent leaves bear enough water to last them for years, and they are perhaps one of the only species with the unique capability of growing within reach of the tides in salty soil.

You throw an ambitious bullet train into the mix, and these mangroves face the threat of mass destruction. If there was a faint ray of hope that the judiciary would protect our forests, it seems to have dimmed after the Bombay High Court permitted the National High-Speed Rail Corporation (NHSRCL) to cut nearly 22,000 mangrove trees in Mumbai and the neighbouring districts of Palghar and Thane for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project. 

Price of development 

Across the board, environmentalists, rights groups and residents of the areas where the bullet train will pass are understandably enraged. Dr Sarita Subramaniam, director of the Earth Brigade Foundation, who had previously petitioned to protect the Aarey forest in the Bombay HC, told The Established that the bullet train issue speaks of the dimensions of development and its price. 

“What will we do when Mumbai gets flooded, take a bullet train to Ahmedabad? If the objective is to upgrade our public transportation system, why can’t they improve the condition of the local trains, ensure the BEST buses get more routes and more importantly, make sewage system improvements to avoid the dread of monsoon floods?”

Subramaniam believes there is a fundamental problem in labelling any pro-environment discourse as anti-nation. After all, when we did, “development” in the most traditional sense automatically became pro-nation, she argues. 

“During the 2005 Mumbai floods, my office was inundated with water till my ceiling fan. But we still worked,” she says. “While none of us can do much in the face of such calamities, why approve such projects?”

Being practical 

There is no overwhelming consensus for or against the project on the urban planning front. Bhaumik Gowande, a public transportation planner who has worked with various government agencies in and outside Maharashtra, says the bullet train project connects an island (Mumbai) with a mainland city (Ahmedabad). So the felling of mangroves becomes the only practical option.

“A bullet train is not like a metro that can be built on top of existing roadways because it needs to have its own right of way as it has massive infrastructural requirements because if its sheer size,” he says. “With help of technology, these 20,000 mangroves can certainly be shifted or reforested like how many countries across southeast and east Asia are doing, instead of just felling them. So, why cut 22,000 trees? The actual number might be far higher.”

The way he looks at it, the emissions generated from the bullet train project pale in comparison to those generated from other modes of transport, including airways, waterways, and roadways. He cites his own research on eliminating short-haul flights by connecting O’Hare International Airport to cities across the midwest in the United States with Japan’s Maglev train (high-speed bullet trains). The research highlighted that the bullet train was environmentally sustainable compared to other modes in relation tothe cost of operations, emission, and time. 

Another study quoted by Yale University highlighted how bullet trains and high-speed rail networks cause less air pollution, boost the economy and reduce traffic congestion. To what extent will the Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train project be able to replicate these benefits remains to be seen, particularly in the wake of the pressing environmental concerns raised by wildlife activists and environmentalists. 

“Anyone wanting to visit Ahmedabad for trade must fly to Mumbai first before taking a connecting flight to Ahmedabad. But with the bullet train, it’s projected to take less than three hours from Bandra-Kurla Complex in Mumbai to GIFT City in Gujarat,” he says. 

For Subramaniam, the environmental stakes are too unbalanced to make sense of the project’s scale, and its wide-ranging impact will not only affect the villagers who will be displaced.

“We also raised this matter in the Bombay HC during the Aarey case. The argument applies to the mangroves in the bullet train project,” she says, explaining these forests are home to hundreds of scheduled, protected species under the Wildlife Protection Act 1972. “Is there a rehabilitation plan for all the species of protected animals and birds that will be impacted?” 

Last resort

The project presents a picture of deep contradictions for Palghar resident Vikrant Kelkar, a 34-year-old farmer whose house might fall along the way of the proposed bullet train route. Although he acknowledges that the level of public health and social infrastructure projects has gone up, the bullet train might disrupt the harmony and ecological balance of the forest-rich area. 

“The bullet train project has sparked fear in the hearts of villagers in the vicinity,” he says. “We hope the courts come to our rescue because we’re not illiterate villagers who don’t understand what’s good for us and what’s not. That a super fast bullet train will pass over the heads of below poverty line homes and schools struggling for supplies doesn’t inspire confidence.” 

Subramaniam says even though the judiciary hasn’t come through for environmental causes, she still hopes “development” will stop at the high cost of human and wildlife habitats. “If we haven’t been able to develop the technology to make ecologically conscious and sustainable transportation, we shouldn’t attempt a project of this magnitude?” 

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