A petition calling for Bollywood to return back 51 acre of forest land, part of its film city in Mumbai, has gone viral on social media.

The film city is currently said to be housed on 520 acres of what used to be lush green forest, out of which 51 acres was “mistakenly transferred” by Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) in 1969.

The SGNP officials have been quoted as saying that they have been demanding that this piece of land be returned back ever since the 1970s but their requests have fallen on deaf ears.

The requests intensified since 2011 when wild animals were seen roaming in the area and various leopard attacks were reported which led to a pause on outdoor shootings.

The petition which already has over 6,000 signatures, is addressed to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. It claims that Bollywood's Film City has illegally usurped Mumbai's forest land.

Citing climate change, the petition calls for the Maharashtra government to take back 51 acres of land so that trees can be planted there, to reverse the environmental damage.

Besides this petition, a hashtag #shutdownfilmcity also began trending on Twitter which called for a demolition of the film city buildings so that the forest land can be reclaimed. It has been reported that the film city has caused six times more deforestation than what will be caused by the Metro car shed.