Maharashtra tourism corp hands over 466 acres of mangroves in Gorai-Manori to forest dept

About 466

About 466.72 acres of mangrove land, formerly owned by the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) in Gorai and Manori creeks, has now been transferred to the state forest department’s mangrove cell and declared as a reserve forest under Section 20 of the Indian Forest Act (IFA), 1927.

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State environment minister Aaditya Thackeray had met MTDC officials in last September, directing them to expedite the handover.

“All claims over the land have now been settled, after initial notification under Section 4 of IFA. The land includes about 460.85 acres in Manori creek and 5.87 acres in Gorai creek. The transfer happened on May 24 under the supervision of the tehsildar,” said Virendra Tiwari, additional principal chief conservator of forests (mangrove cell).

The move is in line with the Bombay high court’s directive to the government, which instructs the latter to hand over all mangrove areas on state land to the forest department for better conservation. Declaring areas as reserved forests grants them legal sanctity and protects biodiversity by outlawing activities such as foraging, hunting and harvesting of natural resources in the earmarked boundaries.

As per official estimates, there are 17,090 hectares (ha) of mangrove forests in on government land in the state. Of these, at least 10,632ha have already been brought under the purview of IFA in 2019, 2020 and 2021. A total of 2,066ha of mangroves have been excluded from the purview due to community dependence on the land, officials clarified, while the remaining are under process for declaration. Previously, 916ha of mangroves in Borivli taluka of Mumbai (suburban) district were declared a reserve forest under Section 20, IFA, via a gazette notification on March 23.