Accommodate 264 tabelas in city with Aarey: BMC to dairy dept

Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has urged the state dairy department to consider shifting approximately 10,000 milch animals currently housed in 264 tableas across the city to the Aarey milk colony. The civic body had earlier planned to shift the animals to Dapchari in Palghar, following a 2023 high court order, but this plan has been put on hold owing to opposition from tabela owners and milk producers.
“When we informed tabelas in the western and eastern suburbs about the shift to Dapchari, they told us it was simply not feasible,” said Kiran Dighavkar, deputy municipal commissioner, BMC.
The tabelas deliver fresh milk without additives to consumers across the city, which would not be possible if they’re shifted four hours away to Palghar, the Mumbai Milk Producers Welfare Association told the BMC. It also requested that the tabelas be shifted inside the Aarey milk colony.
“Accordingly, we have asked the state diary department to consider the proposal,” said Dighavkar.
The move stems from a 2023 high court order on a petition filed by the nonprofit Janhit Manch, which directed that all tabelas in Mumbai except those within the Aarey compound be shifted to Dapchari in Palghar. The Milk Producers Association appealed against the order in the supreme court, but its plea was rejected.
During a meeting held on August 23, the association told the BMC that most of the 264 tabelas in the city did not have more than 50-60 buffaloes each. “Dapcheri is very far from Mumbai and the milk will get spoiled due to long-distance travel. The safety of tabela owners and workers would also be compromised,” the association said, pleading that they be allotted space within the Aarey Colony.
The BMC had allotted around 150 acres in Aarey to 30 tabelas – at roughly five acres per tabela – in the 1950s. Although these tabelas have space for 34,500 cattle, around 16,000 animals reside there at present and animals from all 264 tabelas across the city can easily be accommodated there.