Restore 4 Bhiwandi wetlands turned into dumps: Green tribunal to Thane collector

NGT orders Thane collectorate to restore four polluted wetlands in Bhiwandi, holding landowners accountable for cleanup and preventing further dumping.

Mumbai: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has ordered the Thane collectorate to clean up four wetlands in Anjur Dive village in Bhiwandi, which were turned into a dumping ground over the last one year. The order dated December 18, which was passed in response to a petition filed by environmental NGO Vanashakti, was uploaded on Tuesday.

Restore 4 Bhiwandi wetlands turned into dumps: Green tribunal to Thane collector

The NGT order states that the owners of the concerned land should be held accountable for the removal of the debris and restoration of the wetlands. “We direct the District Collector concerned in the capacity of Chairman of the District Coastal Management Committee to take necessary action with regard to removal of the debris found at the four sites… and ensure that no further dumping of debris takes place (there)… if not done by the owners of the lands themselves,” states the order, adding that the expenses incurred will have to be borne by the land owners.

NGT has ordered the exercise to be completed within three months of the date of uploading the order. “A compliance report in that regard should be submitted to this Tribunal,” the order reads.

Bhiwandi, a coastal lowland city which has become a hub of warehouses for major e-commerce brands, also houses several illegal warehouses. Stalin Dayanand, director of NGO Vanashakti, said that the landfills were created to turn the mudflats into dry lands to build warehouses, which are a booming business in the city.

Of the four wetland sites, three are on privately owned land, while one comes under the jurisdiction of the gram panchayat. The wetlands are located in close proximity to creeks and mangroves that come under the coastal regulation zone.

Vanashakti compared satellite images of the four areas taken in 2020, 2022 and 2023. “These sites came to our attention in December 2023 when the dumping had just begun,” said Stalin. Following this, complaints were sent to the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB), district collector and the ministry of environment, forest and climate change. “However, no action was taken,” said Stalin.

After a public interest litigation was filed against the landowners, MPCB, on the directive of the NGT, conducted a survey of the sites. The report states that the land owners should be held responsible for the environmental degradation and an environmental damage compensation should be levied on them.

The owners of two of the four sites told the committee that they had no idea about the sources of solid waste and debris that were being dumped, and that the perpetrators were “unknown persons”. The report states that waste and debris are dumped on a 1,10,000-square-metre site along the Mumbai-Nashik highway and on an 11,000-square-metre area in the village.

With regard to the third site, which is near a graveyard, the NGT report states that the landowners claimed that “waste from the Thane Municipal Corporation, Greater Mumbai Municipal Corporation… is being collected from Mulund and sent to a Company at Wada to extract oil from the solid waste. Villagers in Gram Panchayat Dive Anjur area do not suffer from any kind of health problem or any kind of disease from this solid waste. It has also been written that if disease spreads in the village from solid waste, we ourselves will be responsible. Also, it is seen that, the garbage is stored on approximately 6000 sq m area.” (sic)

The fourth site is a grazing area for cattle under the jurisdiction of the gram panchayat, where the waste collected from the houses in the vicinity was stored about 134 meters away from a school in Anjur, a sub-locality in Bhiwandi.

“The city has about 800 hectares of wetlands, which are diminishing with time, as people want to turn them into commercial places, failing to understand their ecological importance,” said Stalin. “These wetlands are private properties as they were spots for paddy agriculture, which is no longer practised. The wetlands, however, save the city from flooding during high tides.”

Stalin added that there were more cases across the city where wetlands were turned into dumping yards to build illegal warehouses. “Their verdicts are expected this month,” he said.