E-Paper
4,000 ha state mangroves to be saved after greens SOS to PM
The High Court appointed mangrove committee has confirmed the transfer of mangroves on approximately 4,000 hectares in Maharashtra to the forest department for conservation, in response to environmentalists' complaint. The State Mangrove Cell has taken possession of 21,099.55 hectares of mangrove bearing lands and has identified an additional 3,948.36 hectares. Other departments have been instructed to hand over mangrove areas to the forest department.
NAVI MUMBAI
The High Court appointed mangrove committee has taken steps to ensure transfer of mangroves on about 4,000 hectares, equivalent to the size of 400 Azad Maidans.
The decision was confirmed by the State Mangrove Cell in response to environmentalists’ complaint to the Prime Minister against the delay in implementing the High Court order of September 2018 to protect all mangroves in the state and transfer them to the forest department for conservation.
NatConnect Foundation had written to the Prime Minister alleging that the State authorities have been unable ensure the implementation of the High Court order which is leading to unchecked destruction of mangroves at several places such as Mankhurd, Chembur, Ulwe, Kharghar, Vashi and Uran.
The officially confirmed 4,000 hectares account for over 40 lakh mangroves, going by the thumb rule of a thousand sea plants per hectare, Nandakumar Pawar, head of NGO Sagarshakti explained.
The NatConnect complaint was in the context of the Centre’s admission in Parliament that about 34 percent of the coastline is under varying degrees of erosion for the past 28 years as stated by the government in Parliament. Union Minister of State Minister of State with Independent Charge of Earth Sciences Dr Jitendra Singh said, the National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR), an attached office of the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), is monitoring shoreline erosion since 1990, using remote sensing data and GIS mapping techniques.
A total of 6,907.18 km long coastline of the mainland has been analyzed till 2018 and it is observed that 33.6% of the coastline is under varying degrees of erosion, the Minister said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha in July last year.
Coming as it did in the wake of the research studies that the rising sea levels can drown large chunks of coasts in just 28 years, the government report is a matter of grave concern for coastal areas such as Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), NatConnect director B N Kumar pointed out.
Mangroves, the natural coastal protection mechanism, are being systematically destroyed in spite of the Government’s declared commitment to protect the sea plants, he argued and the PMO has referred the issue to the State Government which in turn sought reply from the Mangrove Cell.
The Cell head S V Ramarao has now confirmed in writing to Kumar that so far, the Forest Department has taken possession of 21,099.55 Ha. of Mangrove bearing lands and also Forest Department has identified total 3948.36 Ha. of Mangrove bearing lands which are with CIDCO and Revenue Department.
The issue of handling the possession of these areas was discussed at the meetings of the Mangrove Protection and Conservation Monitoring Committee headed by Divisional Commissioner, Konkan Division. CIDCO has been directed to complete the process of handing over remaining Mangrove areas in its possession to the Forest Department by the end of October 2023. CIDCO has over 1200 hectares of mangroves with it, the mangrove cell said. Other departments were directed to handover at the earliest.
As regards the complaint that some government agencies were destroying mangroves under the guise of infrastructure development, Ramarao replied: “The Mangrove areas which are in possession of the Forest Department are protected by Mangrove Cell. But in the case of the Mangrove areas which are under other authorities, the Mangrove Cell doesn’t have any jurisdiction.”
