No info on mangrove cover in Nhava Sheva, says JNPT

The Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), which is legally mandated to transfer 913 hectares (ha) of mangroves on its property in Nhava Sheva to the Maharashtra forest department for safekeeping as per an order of the Bombay high court (HC), has claimed that it does not have any information as to the current extent of mangrove cover on its land

The Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), which is legally mandated to transfer 913 hectares (ha) of mangroves on its property in Nhava Sheva to the Maharashtra forest department for safekeeping as per an order of the Bombay high court (HC), has claimed that it does not have any information as to the current extent of mangrove cover on its land. This was revealed on June 7, in response to a Right to Information (RTI) request.

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In response to a query, filed by BN Kumar of the environment group NatConnect Foundation, seeking details about the total hectares under mangroves at entire JNPT “as on date”, JNPT through its public information officer RA Mhatre has said the “details are not available.”

The response has drawn the ire of environmentalists and experts, who have criticised JNPT on multiple occasions for failing to comply with HC’s final order, dated September 17, 2018, to transfer the mangroves on all government land to the forest department within three months.

JNPT has been previously accused of wilfully reclaiming the mangrove cover at Nhava Sheva, burying several dozens of ha under mud and debris. A site visit to the area by an HT team earlier this month found that mangroves at the edge of the Belpada wetland were being actively reclaimed in an organised fashion by dump trucks and earth-moving machines. JNPT officials though, said they have received HC’s permission for road-laying work in the area.

Previously, JNPT has been penalised by the HC-appointed mangrove protection and conservation committee for destroying at least 4,500 mangroves to make way for its container terminal-4 port expansion project.

A JNPT spokesperson, who did not wished to be named, emphasised that the RTI response does not mean a denial of the fact that there are mangroves in Nhava Sheva.

“There certainly are. Initially, there were about 900ha in 2016, but we do not have a current assessment on how much of the mangrove area remains. As the RTI applicant has asked for the area “as on date”, we have responded saying that these details are not available,” the spokesperson said.

Until at least February, JNPT’s website, under a section titled ‘Environment Push’, also contained a declaration that it has 913.6ha of mangroves on its land in Uran. This section has now been removed.

When asked for reasons behind the same, the JNPT spokesperson said, “The part about mangrove cover has been removed from the website because there is no current data on mangrove cover. The port planning and development department is carrying out an assessment and the true area, as of date, will be uploaded.” The spokesperson did not mention the timeframe in which this is to be done.

The website does, however, still mention: “The total land available with JNPT is around 3,402ha. Out of this, 1,147ha area (34%) of the port is under green cover, including mangroves.”

On February 12, the state mangrove cell had written to JNPT, asking it to comply with the HC order. In a letter issued to the chairman of JNPT, Virendra Tiwari, additional principal chief conservator of forests (mangrove cell), had asked the port authority to notify mangrove area under its control under section 4 of the Indian Forest Act, 1927, “at the earliest”. Once notified, the mangrove area has to be handed over to the mangroves cell for better conservation.

“It had come to our notice that JNPT had not yet started the process of notifying mangrove land despite a court order in 2018. As we don’t have any information regarding the mangrove area owned or controlled by JNPT, we had been waiting for the port trust to start the process on its own. We have not received any response from them as of date,” said Tiwari.

In December, environment group Vanashakti had issued a contempt notice to JNPT for failing to hand over mangrove land under their jurisdiction. In January, Vanashakti filed a petition in HC, seeking an immediate transfer of all mangrove lands to the forest department.

“The JNPT’s response amounts to concealment of material facts. If there were 900-odd ha at the time of the court order, then those need to be handed over immediately. Their response also seems to imply that there has been a reduction in the area, which is in itself a violation of HC’s directions,” said Stalin D, director, Vanashakti.

JNPT officials emphasize that the area of mangroves within JNPT “as on date” is tentative and the exact area of mangroves needs to be finalised before any further action is taken. HT also learnt that JNPT has approached the Maharashtra Remote Sensing Application Centre (MRSAC) for demarcation of its mangrove area, and that the latter responded with a work proposal in the first week of June.

“Following demarcation of mangrove area of JNPT through MRSAC after approval, notification, the port trust may handover mangroves land to forest department,” a senior JNPT official said to HT on Sunday.