4,500 Uran mangroves face danger, greens call for action

Environmental groups are up in arms that about 4,500 mangroves in Uran which came back alive after being choked to death only four years back, now face danger again. Mangroves thrive only in intertidal zones with stagnant water being their enemy number one, said a complaint to CM Eknath Shinde

NAVI MUMBAI

HT Image

Environmental groups are up in arms that about 4,500 mangroves in Uran which came back alive after being choked to death only four years back, now face danger again thanks to stagnant dirty water.

Mangroves thrive only in intertidal zones with stagnant water being their enemy number one, said NetConnect Foundation in its complaint to Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.

This is the same site at JNPA container terminal number 4 where the mangroves were killed in May 2018 due to the blocking of intertidal water and the port was fined by the High Court mandated mangrove committee, NatConnect said. The contractor had to cough up the penalty. The forest department has also filed a case in a Panvel court.

The celebrations over rejuvenation of the mangroves proved to be short-lived one as the water flow was again blocked, said Nandakumar Pawar, president of small-scale traditional fish workers union. He and Dilip Koli of Paramparik Machhimar Kruti Samiti have complained to the Mangrove Committee and the Raigad district authorities about it and called for quick action before the mangrove died completely.

Pawar said that it was the NatConnect RTI application that had brought to light that JNPA had 900 hectares of mangroves of which it transferred only 800 hectares for conservation. JNPA still has 100 hectares of mangroves which are in danger as the port’s record is not clean, Pawar alleged.

“Our earlier complaints to the State Environment department have been sent to the district coastal zone committee which is yet to act,” Pawar regretted and expressed the hope that the Mangrove committee would again take some action.

When contacted, a JNPA spokesperson said, “The incident took place in 2018 and necessary corrective action has been taken after that. There is abundant growth of mangrove vegetation in the said area. The development of balance work for fourth container terminal project is going on with all statutary clearances.”