E-Paper
Water from creek floods paddy fields in Uran village
Villagers of Khopate village in Uran were shocked to see creek waters enter the paddy fields on Tuesday.
Villagers of Khopate village in Uran were shocked to see creek waters enter the paddy fields on Tuesday.
Though it’s not the crop season, villagers said that fertility of the soil would be affected.
They blamed City and Industrial Development Corporation (Cidco) as it had reclaimed land for Karanja jetty.
The soil’s fertility has been destroyed because saline water has entered into the paddy fields, said the villagers.
They took help of NGO NatConnect Foundation and Shri Ekvira Aai Pratisthan along with the fishing community forum Paramparik Machhimar Bachao Kruti Samiti and have written to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, environment minister Aaditya Thackeray and Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority (MCZMA) to take stock of the situation.
A similar incident happened in February 2019 when water entered into homes at Funde and Navghar village in Uran.
Khopate village is 21km from Panvel and comes under Dronagiri node of Uran.
Dilip Koli, 50, from Paramparik Machhimar Bachao Kruti Samiti, said, “The wetlands are being reclaimed for development. But, we lost our livelihood. We cannot fish any more. The only left option is farming. How are we supposed to say yes to development which is not inclusive and is being done at the cost of our living?”
Koli said that they have been living in Uran for three generations and have never experienced a flood-like situation even during heavy monsoon. “After Cidco took over, such disaster keeps happening,” said Koli.
Environmentalists have complained to the wetland committee and Raigad collector, who heads the wetland committee.
Raigad collector Nidhi Chaudhary said, “We have received the complaint and it would be discussed in the next meeting.”
In 1971, Cidco took charge of Uran taluka.
Pramod Patil, nodal officer environment, Cidco, said, “The area does not belong to us and passed the buck to Uran tehsildar.”
Bhausaheb Andhare, Uran tehsildar, said that they he have not received any complaint about the issue. “There is high tide during Holi and so water level also rises. I will have visit the area and take a review and access the soil fertility. It is not crop season so crops are not destroyed.”
Environmentalist BN Kumar said the flooding is manmade problem. “Because of jetty work and large-scale reclamation, the natural tidal flow of water has been blocked. Khopate village is low-lying and water entered the paddy fields. The height of the nearby area has increased and so the water flows inside paddy fields.”
He said that officials inspected the area at Funde village in February 2019, but no preventive measure was chalked out.
The area has not been flooded in the past 20 years, said the villagers. The flood situation arose after infrastructure work started in the area.
Abhay Koli, 48, a villager, said, “The development work has caused destruction of fishing areas and whatever little farm fields are left are being damaged.”
