A weekly magazine-style radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders from all corners of our community. The show is produced by a collective of media makers, deejays, and activists.
In this episode, we shine a spotlight on the Aarey Forest – a 2000 acre forest fragmenting at the center of Mumbai, a biodiversity hotspot, and home to 10,000 Warli tribal members. It is the one of the few remaining forests in the world with megafauna within city limits, housing close to 50 wild leopards.
In an earlier speculative episode, we imagined the city of Bombay from the future – from 2042 – and in the voice of the Aarey Forest itself. In today’s documentary episode, we travel back in time – to 2019, to take a closer look at the #SaveAarey movement – a citizen-led environmental movement that sought to protect the forest and its inhabitants from the forces of development. We bring you excerpts of interviews with leaders in the Warli community and in the movement, and bring the story up-to-date to the present.