CIDCO, MMRDA get a one-month deadline to transfer 1K ha mangroves for protection

Bombay High Court has given a month's deadline to CIDCO, MMRDA and Mumbai city district to hand over over 1,000 hectares of mangroves to the forest department for conservation. Environmental groups are critical of the slow progress in adhering to court orders dating back to September 2018, with some calling for the case to be filed by the HC panel itself. A meeting chaired by Dr Rajendra Bhosale has issued clear-cut directions to all concerned officials to file action-taken reports by the next session.

NAVI MUMBAI: Taking serious note of the delay in handing over mangroves to the forest department for protection, the Bombay high court (HC) appointed committee has given a month’s deadline to CIDCO, MMRDA and Mumbai city district to complete the transfer.

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Over a thousand hectares of mangroves, including over 628 hectares by CIDCO, are yet to be transferred for conservation, according to the minutes of the HC committee which had a meeting on May 16.

MMRDA is yet to transfer 199 hectares of sea plants and 184 hectares of mangroves are still under the Mumbai city district.

Environmental groups are up in arms at the slow progress in adhering to the court orders dating back to September 2018. The delay is a fit case for contempt of court and the case should have been filed by the HC panel itself, said NatConnect Foundation.

“Our grouse has been that the delay in handing over the mangroves to the forest department has exposed the mangroves to wanton destruction in several places in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region and the HC committee minutes list several complaints pending action,” NatConnect director B N Kumar said.

“For instance, our five-year-old complaint against unchecked destruction of mangroves by dumping debris at Vashi and Mankhurd along the Sion-Panvel highway is yet to be resolved,” Kumar said.

Similarly, Nandakumar Pawar, head of Shri Ekvira Aai Pratishtan and advocate Pradeep Patole filed a complaint a couple of months ago against the destruction of the tidal plants at Kharghar.

High court committee member Stalin D has also filed a series of complaints. The minutes of the meetings so far have carried remarks that reports from CIDCO, district collectors and officials such as the salt commissioner were still awaited.

Greens say the latest meeting chaired by Dr Rajendra Bhosale reflects a marked change as he issued clear-cut directions to all concerned officials to file action-taken reports by the next session. Dr Bhosale, Mumbai suburban district collector, was the acting chairman of the HC panel as the committee head Dr Mahendra Kalyankar was away on training.

Dr Bhosale’s deadline to CIDCO and others to transfer all mangroves to the forest department is a welcome development, but we have to wait and see this getting converted into action, said Pawar.

“The time limit of one month has already ended and we are yet to hear any news about the handing over of the mangroves,” Pawar pointed out.

NatConnect cautiously welcomed the committee’s decision to decentralise the process of handling complaints against mangrove destruction to district, taluka and civic body levels. The district committees have so far not acted decisively against most of the complaints, Kumar said and quipped “let us wait and see as to how this directive leads to some action”.