Despite the fact that Aarey Colony is home to over 4 lakh trees, the Metro authorities now claim that the area is not a forest but merely grasslands. This claim was made by the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC) in another desperate bid to get clearance to build the car depot for Metro III within Aarey at the cost of displacing up to 1,000 trees and threatening the rich local biodiversity there — a proposal that has met with fierce opposition from green activists and citizens.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep: BMC has already counted over 4 lakh trees in the ongoing tree census at Aarey