66 hA of forest in Palghar, Dahanu, to be destroyed for Vadhvan Port

PALGHAR: The talukas of Dahanu and Palghar are likely to lose 66

PALGHAR: The talukas of Dahanu and Palghar are likely to lose 66.63 hectares (164.6 acres) of forest in Gargao and Khanivade villages. The Jawaharlal Nehru Ports Authority (JNPA), which is developing Vadhvan Port in Palghar district, has sought ‘diversion’ of this forest land for mining stones to be used in the construction. The Palghar district administration will now send the proposal to the state pollution control board.

G Vaidyanathan, chief general manager for port planning and development at JNPA, confirmed that the area was required for quarrying.

Of the 66.63 hectares, 2.53 hectares falls in the eco-sensitive taluka of Dahanu. Niranjan Diwakar, the deputy conservator of forests, Dahanu, said that the plot had “medium tree cover” or nearly 25,000 trees. A hearing was held in Palghar on August 2, where villagers strongly opposed the project.

The project and related infrastructure appears to be set to cause large-scale green destruction. For instance, the construction of a highway to give high-speed direct connectivity to Vadhvan Port will extract an environmental toll of 72,790 trees, 21 ponds, 209 wells and borewells and 611 houses. Connecting National Highway 48 to Samruddhi Expressway will destroy approximately 212.16 hectares of forest land and a possible threat to the Upper Vaitarna dam that supplies water to Mumbai. A fortnight ago, the Centre had said that the alignment must be changed.

What has riled green activists and locals the most is that the union shipping ministry had claimed that forests would not be touched. “The environmental clearance, CRZ clearance and other permissions were given on the ground that there would be no impact on forests and mangroves,” said Debi Goenka, executive trustee of the non-profit Conservation Action Trust. “Besides, forest lands in Dahanu are protected not just under forest laws but also by the notification declaring the taluka an eco-sensitive zone, which has been upheld by the Supreme Court. The Dahanu Authority, the MPCB, the state environment department and the ministry of forests are well aware of all this but are allowing JNPA to break all the laws.”

Another environmental activist, D Stalin, said that breaking forested mountains was an “environmentally disastrous” idea. “Vadhwan Port will have a huge ecological footprint,” he said. “The possible damage that is out in the open is not even a fraction of what lies ahead. Hundred percent of the local population has opposed the project, yet it is being bulldozed through. The entire process of public consultation is a farce as is the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). If breakwaters have to be made, it should be made using marine rocks, not terrestrial ones. But who cares for science or the environment now? It’s a free fall under the present regime.”

An irate Devendra Damodar Tandel, president of the Akhil Maharashtra Machhimar Kriti Samiti said, “In the name of Vadhvan Port, are we now going to sacrifice every forest, every tree and our groundwater? The project’s own EIA says that 15.39 hectares of reserve forest will be mined and 15,116 trees may be felled. And the forest clearance itself is still pending. What is even more absurd is the claim that these trees will be ‘compensated’ by planting trees in Parbhani. How can destroying an existing natural forest ecosystem in Palghar and planting saplings hundreds of kilometres away be considered equivalent? This logic defies the most basic understanding of nature and the natural fabric of our ecosystem.”

Tandel said that the very foundation of the project was clouded by suppression of facts, serious contradictions and what they believed amounted to fraudulent malpractice. “We will oppose this project by every possible democratic and legal means,” he said. “The authorities should remember what happened during the earlier public hearing, when the voices of the bhumiputras of Palghar were so strong that even the administration was left speechless. The people of Palghar have made their position clear—we will not allow our forests, water and land to be sacrificed in the name of development.”