An environmental alarm has been raised over ongoing underground cable-laying work inside Mumbai’s Aarey Eco-Sensitive Zone (ESZ), with activists warning that unregulated digging could severely damage the area’s tree cover.

On November 14, activist Godfrey Pimenta of the Watchdog Foundation emailed the Secretary of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) and the Maharashtra Principal Secretary (Environment), alleging that the excavation work poses a serious risk to trees in the Aarey ESZ. Pimenta’s complaint states that the issue requires urgent intervention from the MoEF&CC.