In the last two years, there has been a genuine citizen movement to save one of the green lungs of Mumbai, the Aarey forest, which is an extension of the larger Sanjay Gandhi National Park. In October 2020, citizens won a rare victory by getting the metro car shed project moved out of Aarey and seeing the area officially declared a reserved forest. Young people and regular citizens were the heart of that fight.
One of those young people – with an especially close relationship to the forest and the leopards – is Nikit Surve.
He is a biologist who works at the Wildlife Conservation Society India. He has been studying the Sanjay Gandhi National Park and spending a lot of time in it.
In the third part of this podcast series titled Marine Lines: Mumbai’s Hidden Worlds, from the Suburbs to the Sea, hosted by journalist and author Raghu Karnad, Nikit Surve talks about how Mumbai’s leopards see the city.
This podcast has been co-created by DeadAnt Studio and Ministry of Mumbai’s Magic. Listen to the other parts here.
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