CM asks top official to check Kharghar Hill excavation by CIDCO

NatConnect Foundation, which has been running the #SaveKhargharHill campaign, brought to the notice of the chief minister that the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) has been cutting the hill without proper environmental clearance

NAVI MUMBAI: Five hours after a green group shared videos and photographs of unauthorised quarrying of Kharghar Hill with chief minister Eknath Shinde, he asked a senior official to look into the matter.

Navi Mumbai, India - January 23, 2019: Sachin Mahtre a resident from Owe village in kharghar has filed RTI seeking information about deadline to stop the hill blasting work in the area at Kharghar in Navi Mumbai, India, on Wednesday, January 23, 2019. (Photo by Bachchan Kumar/ Hindustan Times) (Hindustan Times)

NatConnect Foundation, which has been running the #SaveKhargharHill campaign, brought to the notice of the chief minister that the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) has been cutting the hill without proper environmental clearance.

NatConnect director BN Kumar, who visited the site on Tuesday said what is happening at the hill is nothing short of quarrying. CIDCO has undertaken the task of scraping the hill with heavy machinery as part of the expansion of the Kharghar golf course.

Sending the video and photographs to CM Shinde, NatConnect said the machines have now reached the top of the hill.

“The CMO reacted with electric speed and marked the mail to Bhushan Gagrani, principal secretary, Urban Development-1,” Kumar said and vowed to pursue the issue through the RTI route.

The officials concerned must be made accountable and the rush of people going to courts on environmental issues must be stopped, Kumar asserted.

Kumar pointed out that the National Green Tribunal has stipulated that quarrying needs prior environmental clearance (EC) and CIDCO action violate this.

Information obtained by NatConnect through the RTI route showed that CIDCO had not obtained the requisite EC.

In February last, the Raigad district administration had halted the excavation for a day or two on the issue of payment of royalty for digging the hill, but allowed the machines to run after top CIDCO officials intervened, claimed Kumar.

The hill is part of the contiguous hill that stretches from Belapur to Taloja and is not an independent piece that can be tampered with, said Jyoti Nadkarni of Kharghar Hill and Wetland group.

She said that damage to this part of the hill could impact the other parts and cause landslides.

In fact, people from the Dhamole settlement who have been given about 250 acres in the hill area for social forestry, have protested against the hill cutting by forming a human chain following which even the police stopped the work. The hill cutting would adversely impact their homes, Balaram Pardhi, head of the Vana Hakk Samiti said.

The work was on and off but appears to have taken a serious turn now with CIDCO contractors clearing access to the top of the hill.

Nadkarni pointed out that a monsoon pond that used to be full of water for about five to six months is now buried thanks to the golf course expansion.

“It is tragic that the people of Dhamole struggle to get a pale of water, while the golf course is a guzzler,” the activist said.

Bhagwan Kesbhat, founder and CEO of Waatavaran, said the people of Dhamole have been running from pillar to post to get justice by submitting memoranda to top officials with no respite.

HT reached out to CIDCO for an official statement on this matter but they did not respond.