Mangrove cell sets September 30 deadline for mangroves handover in Maharashtra

All mangrove lands currently in the possession of various government agencies, such as JNPT, Mhada, MIDC and various municipal corporations, among others, will be handed over to the state forest department by September 30, mangrove cell submitted to the high court.

All mangrove lands currently in the possession of various government agencies, such as the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada), Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) and various municipal corporations, among others, will be handed over to the state forest department within the two months, by September 30, the mangrove cell submitted to the Bombay high court (HC).

Mangrove cell’s decision comes to ensure compliance with Bombay HC order on handing over all mangroves to the state forest department for protection. (HT FILE)

The deadline was set during a July 13 meeting of an independent state-level committee constituted to ensure compliance with the HC’s final judgement of September 2018, instructing that all mangrove lands in the state be handed over to the forest department for protection under the Indian Forest Act, 1927. The minutes of the meeting, released on July 26, were submitted to the HC in an affidavit Wednesday. The matter is set to be heard on Thursday.

HT had, on July 25, reported that a total of 519 hectares (ha) of mangroves have already been committed for handover by Cidco (219ha) and MMRDA (200ha). However, the Committee of Secretaries, in their July 13 meeting, noted that Cidco has over 1,000ha of mangroves in their possession. “Cidco is directed to identify remaining mangrove forest with the help of MRSAC maps and ground-truthing,” the committee noted, issuing similar directions applicable to JNPT, Mhada, MIDC, and the municipal corporations of Panvel, Bhiwandi-Nizampur, Navi Mumbai and Kalyan-Dombivli.

The date, September 30, has also been set as the deadline to resolve 58 pending complaints received since 2018 by the HC-appointed mangrove monitoring and protection committee headed by the Konkan divisional commissioner. The committee has received 146 complaints related to destruction of mangroves in three years, of which 88 have been resolved. The date is also the deadline for civic bodies to assign sites for dumping of debris and construction waste and to clear up all illegally dumped construction and demolition waste from not only recognised mangrove areas but also a 50-metre buffer zone around them, shows the minutes of the meeting.

However, a member of the monitoring committee said this deadline is unlikely to be met. “The official stance of the municipalities is that cleaning up the mangroves is too expensive and that the process will be a lengthy one, involving taking out tenders and so on. It does not make financial sense for them. In all cases of illegal dumping on mangroves, there has not been any instance where the waste has actually been cleaned up. We will have to see what the court says about this,” the member said.

Another significant milestone that the forest department hopes to achieve in the next two months is the settlement of claims on 3,700ha of mangroves which are awaiting final declaration as “reserve forest” under section 20 of the Indian Forest Act with appointed forest settlement officers or sub-divisional officers. Konkan divisional commissioner has been asked to ensure that none of these areas are deleted on account of the lack of mangroves on site. “The status of mangroves in the year 2005 shall be considered for the purpose of final notification,” the committee observed.