After the Joint Director Wildlife, Ministry of Environment and Forests and Climate Change (MOEF&CC) told the state to take urgent action to protect and arrest the destruction of leopard habitat in the Aarey Forest, an NGO, Empower Foundation, has written to the chief wildlife warden, Maharashtra Environment Minister Ramdas Kadam and Superintendent and BMC's Standing Committee chairman Yashwant Jadhav demanding an urgent site visit of the proposed Metro car shed in Aarey where trees were felled.

City-based green activists have been alleging that the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation's (MMRC) claims that majority of the trees at the car depot site having already been cut is wrong. NGO Empower Foundation wrote the letter with reference to an earlier letter it had sent to the MOEF&CC. mid-day, on October 9, had reported about the MOEF&CC directing the chief wildlife warden of the state to save the leopard habitat in Aarey.