Activists to plant four 'blessed' sapling in Aarey Colony

Citizens worried about trees getting chopped in Aarey Milk Colony due to Metro III construction work, seeked divine intervention at four holy places on Sunday, May 14. The nature lovers carried saplings of four different plants in all the four holy places to seek blessing.

Amrita Bhattaacharjee, member of Aarey Conservation Group (ACG), said, "The four saplings which were blessed at holy places will be planted in the Aarey Colony next Sunday. All four saplings are indigenous. We chose to plant indigenous sapling because not many are aware about the native trees of the city."

The four saplings were of pipal, mango, udumbara and baobab. The 'padyatra' (march) began from Shivaji Park on Sunday morning and first headed to Siddhivinayak temple. Later the citizens walking in the march, visited Haji Ali Dargah at Worli, Sri Guru Singh Sabha Gurudwara at Dadar East and Holy Family Church at Andheri East.

Over 90 citizens joined the march to pray for seeking strength in the ongoing battle on opposing the construction of carshed for Metro III inside Aarey Colony.

"Every good things starts with the blessing of god. We wanted to seek blessing from god to fight the battle of saving the city's green cover. We used social media to spread the word among the nature lovers to join us for the march," said Priya Mishra.