City’s environmental lovers carry out tree planting in decades-old Aarey park

Once lockdown was lifted, Mumbai’s environmental lovers took up a task that was on their minds – saving the Picnic Point Park at Aarey. Their aim was to clean out the park that had been left to decay and to plant more trees there, and they did this over the last three weekends. Environmentalist Sanjiv Valsan, who was part of the effort, says, “We are trying to revive Picnic Point Park, said to be Mumbai’s only public park in the middle of a forest.It is decades old, very large and also has a water body inside. This used to be Bombay’s favourite garden back then and people who have grown up here have fond memories of it. Having been neglected and abandoned for long, it’s gone into disrepair – the swings are broken, there is garbage lying around, plus there are anti-social elements coming in. People have even forgotten that it exists. It’s when the park gate became a meeting point for several protests last year and before that, that people realised there was such a beautiful area inside. We now want to bring it back to life.”
'We're planting native trees as they are useful to the native birds and insects'
With masks on and maintaining social distance, the participants have been cleaning the park, including picking up trash, and their plan over time also includes repairing the play area. He adds, “We have been purchasing our own saplings and planting them, trying not to plant non-indigenous species as they could cause harm. Another reason to use the native species is because these are connected to native birds and insects and will be useful to them. We planted several trees like the umbar tree (wild fig), which attracts a lot of birds and also improves groundwater levels. We also planted raat ki rani and fruits like jamun and wild mango. The planting being undertaken is all part of the continuous effort to rewild Aarey. The tree planting is also making for such a feel-good, open-air activity.”