The Legal Precedents for Green Space Protection
In 1991, a landmark Supreme Court ruling in the case of Bangalore Medical Trust established a crucial legal precedent for the preservation of urban green spaces. The ruling emphasized that protecting the environment and maintaining open spaces and gardens are matters of great public concern.
This decision led to several other significant judicial interpretations, reinforcing four key legal principles:
Doctrine of Public Trust – Gardens and open spaces are considered public property, as people have a right to clean air.
Right to Life (Article 21) – The fundamental right to life extends to maintaining open spaces and gardens for public well-being.
Principle of Non-Regression – Environmental laws and protections, once established, should not be weakened or reversed.
Inter-Generational Equity – The present generation has an obligation to preserve the environment for future generations.
The Builders’ Agenda: Exploiting Policies for Profit
Despite these legal safeguards, the reality took a different course. As Mumbai’s real estate boom gained momentum, powerful builder lobbies began influencing policies from behind the scenes. Their primary objective was maximizing profits, even at the cost of green spaces and the environment.
A narrative was crafted to justify their actions—government policies proclaimed that redevelopment and rehabilitation were crucial for social equity. However, in practice, these initiatives primarily served the interests of builders by allowing them to exploit Floor Space Index (FSI) regulations, leading to excessive construction and massive financial gains.
The Disappearance of Open Spaces
The most severe consequence of this builder-driven agenda was the near destruction of mandatory open spaces in new building layouts. Development Control Regulations once mandated that 25% of large plot areas be maintained as garden space. Additionally, substantial setbacks (open spaces around buildings) ranging from 12 to 20 meters were required. However, under the guise of redevelopment, these requirements were drastically reduced:
Garden spaces shrank from 25% to a mere 8%.
Setbacks around buildings were reduced to as little as 1.5 meters.
Even the remaining 8% of garden space was relegated to podium tops, rooftops, and side margins, making sustainable greenery nearly impossible.
The Impact on Trees and Urban Ecology
As a direct result of unchecked construction, existing trees suffered immensely. Roots were cut to accommodate shore piles at the edges of plots. Old trees within building layouts were felled indiscriminately, while even those on public roads were removed to create access roads.
The situation worsened as towering concrete structures blocked sunlight, slowing the growth of remaining trees and even causing them to die prematurely. This effect is particularly visible in areas such as Ghatkopar and Khar, where large indigenous trees—once mandated every 10 meters—have largely vanished.
The Vanishing Urban Jungles
Several pockets of Mumbai that once housed dense urban forests have now been reduced to concrete wastelands. Some glaring examples include:
The transformation of the lush MIG Colony in Bandra East (within a Survey of India demarcated “Hazard Line”) into a cluster of high-rises.
The loss of green cover in Azad Nagar, Wadala.
The redevelopment of former textile mills and factories that were once surrounded by trees, now replaced by continuous sheets of concrete.
The Missed Battle: Activists vs. Builders
Environmental activists, despite their good intentions, often missed the larger picture. While they protested against tree-cutting for public projects like the metro, they failed to recognize the far greater damage caused by unchecked private redevelopment. This misplaced focus allowed powerful builder lobbies to continue their exploitative practices with minimal resistance.
The Half-Truths of Redevelopment
As Charles Dickens famously wrote in Oliver Twist, “the law is an ass—an idiot.” When laws are manipulated by those with vested interests, the consequences can be devastating.
The rhetoric of redevelopment, while seemingly noble, tells only half the truth. If the full truth were revealed, it would expose the reality of environmental destruction in Mumbai as a blatant falsehood. Without stringent enforcement of legal principles, the city’s remaining green spaces stand at grave risk of extinction.
