Save Aarey is dedicated to the longest running citizen-led urban environmental movement in India. The idea behind  the upcoming track is to urgently direct public consciousness to the deforestation happening in Mumbai’s Aarey Forest issue in Mumbai through music, using a combination of protest hip hop, hard facts and deep emotion.

Politicians may say that it’s “only 2 % of Aarey that’s being cut for the Metro", but in reality, 407 acres of Aarey Forest that has been quietly removed from the buffer zone of the Sanjay Gandhi National park using this metro as an excuse, way back in 2016 itself. 

"And if we remain silent, Mumbai’s lungs are going to be cut down, along with our own oxygen supply and the home of thousands of birds, animals and Adivasis. Wild animals would be forced to move to human settlements, in an artificially created man-animal conflict,” says Rashid.

For those who aren’t aware of what the protest is all about, Rashid’s idea was to use his music to create public awareness. “We need to protect our last forest from getting destroyed. Mother Nature unites all of us; this isn’t just about a bunch of trees being cut, because a forest is more than just some trees… this is just the beginning of the end of the world’s last natural forest in a megacity; if we as Indians stay silent about the wrongs, this city will not just flood, but also become a polluted and unbearable heat island.”

Rashid Shaikh (aka RichieRich) is an engineer by profession and a conscious hip hop musician by passion, who writes and raps about emotions, social issues and life in and around his hood (Marol). Rashid has grown up loving Aarey Forest, and can’t bear to see his favourite forest get cut down.

Watch the song Save Aarey on YouTube: 

https://youtube.com/c/RashidAKARichierich