Raj Thackeray opposes felling of 32,490 trees for Karjat pumped storage project

The proposed felling of 32,490 trees for a 3,000 MW pumped storage project in Karjat has become a political flashpoint. On Sunday, members of the Karjat Taluka Paryavaran Bachao Sangharsh Samiti met Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray at his home in Dadar West and sought his support against the felling.

The committee members explained the whole matter to Thackeray and showed him documents related to the project. Thackeray then opposed the destruction of the forest in the area. He also announced a public meeting in Karjat on October 28.

Kailash More, a lawyer associated with the committee, said Thackeray had been gathering information on the tree felling for the past two to three days. According to More, the MNS chief may also visit the project site before the meeting. He will state his position there and announce plans for the further agitation.

More said: "We showed Raj saheb all the information, facts and documents, and his response was positive." He also said NCP (SP) leader Rohit Pawar is likely to attend the meeting. According to More, there has been a tremendous response from many political parties, leaders, organisations and institutions across Maharashtra. All of them hold the same view that the old trees, environment and nature of the area must not be harmed, and all have expressed anger over it.

Aaditya Thackeray questioned the permission granted for the felling in a post on X. He alleged that the project is being pushed ahead despite opposition from local residents and environmental activists.

Rohit Pawar warned that the destruction could affect species such as the barking deer, leopards and wild boar. He also raised the loss of medicinal plants. He expressed concern as well about the effect of blasting for tunnelling on the hills and the consequences for local tribal communities.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis called the allegations of indiscriminate tree felling a false narrative. He said the project will make up the shortfall in electricity during peak hours after solar power generation stops. Fadnavis said: "The land that has been taken is only for water reservoirs, and in exchange about three times as much land has been handed over to the Forest Department, along with 90,000 compensatory saplings. If this same capacity were built with coal, it would take 28 crore fully grown trees to offset that pollution, the emissions would equal 40 lakh vehicles, and 19 TMC of water would be used every year. The site is 16 km from the Bhimashankar forest, and approval came after an 18-month strict scrutiny by central and state forest bodies."

The Saidongar I Karjat off-stream open loop pumped storage project spans the villages of Pali, Kotal Khalati, Saidongar and Dhak in Karjat taluka. According to documents, 233 hectares of forest land will have to be diverted for it.

The Range Forest Officer, Karjat East, issued a letter on October 14 directing that 32,490 trees be felled immediately for the project. Local residents say the felling has begun. Forest Department officials have said the project has received central and state-level approvals. Environmental activists fear that fewer trees could destroy wildlife habitats, fragment forest areas and affect the ecological balance of the biodiversity-rich Sahyadris.