My Heritage Chronicles

Aarey forest is that green lungs of Mumbai which is standing on the edge of being slaughtered. Agricultural land which was part of Sanjay Gandhi National park, today acts as a buffer zone between the forest of national park and development that maximum city of Mumbai so badly wants to sustain its ever increasing population. Aarey land has been eyed by successive state governments over the years, first it was in name of white revolution that we carved out a portion of Aarey to start Aarey Milk colony which constituted milk factory, cattle grazing units and residential quarters for its employees, then we carved Film city out of Aarey and then Royal Palms residential and commercial complex and now this Metro train shed and in offing is proposed new zoo project and this list continues.... Not to forget the huge land parcel occupied by slums which have also grown in leaps and bounds within Aarey. But very few would know that Aarey forest has been continuously inhabited by its original resid...

Borivali Sanjay Gandhi National park, a protected area is one of the most visited national park within the metropolitan city limits of Mumbai. It covers an area of 103 sq kms. Apart from its rich flora and fauna, the area of national park lies on an important route which connected the two ancient port towns of Sopara and Kalyan. These ancient ports had trading relations with older cities of the world like Greece and Mesopotamia. The history of National park dates back to 1st century BCE when Buddhist monks chiselled out massive basaltic rocks to create the world famous Buddhist learning and pilgrimage site of Kanheri. Over 109 caves were carved filled with sculptures, carvings, paintings and inscriptions between 1st century to 9th century BCE. The forested areas of the national park were first inhabited by the monks who stayed at the monasteries of Kanheri. But in modern times there are quite a large tribal populations who have been staying inside or on the fringes of national p...

Byculla in the 19th century was part of textile mills belt of Bombay, It is said that there were in total 136 mills operating in areas of Parel, Lalbaug, Byculla, Prabhadevi, Chinchpokli etc which collectively was known as "Girangaon" meaning "Village of mills". By 1982 the textile mills had started to struggle and with the famous "Greater Bombay textile strike" which lasted for 18 months,by which time most of these mills had closed down. Byculla with its neighbourhood of Nagpada, Agripada, Chinchpokli, Kamathipura and the Mazgaon docks became known for its underworld activities. Today there are no strikes, underworld activities at its near zero and what we see now are the high rise building towers. But within all this there is another side of Byculla - the 18th century Byculla . Byculla came into existence as an extension of Mazgaon - one of the seven islands of Bombay. The low lying flat land which used to be flooded during high tide was made inha...