Collector directs cops to book officers of Army club

The Mumbai city collector has directed Mumbai Police to file an FIR against senior army officers of Sagar Matha Club in Navy Nagar, Colaba, for illegally carrying

The Mumbai city collector has directed Mumbai Police to file an FIR against senior army officers of Sagar Matha Club in Navy Nagar, Colaba, for illegally carrying out landfilling on the shore next to the club. However, Army officers said that no reclamation was done and boulders were placed to protect the club from flooding.

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This is the second time since April that the district collector has ordered an FIR be filed against the club for similar environmental violations. There had been no follow-up action then owing to Lok Sabha election duties, the collector had said.

The direction comes a week after the district administration, forest officials and the police carried out a site visit following complaints by environment group Conservation Action Trust (CAT) that the club had reclaimed mangrove forests in the area. The Army had told HT then that the landfilling was being done to prevent sea erosion .

“Based on the site visit by different departments, it is clear that flood protection measures have been carried out within 50 metres of the mangrove trees, which is a violation of Bombay high court (HC) orders and the Environment Protection Act, 1986,” said city collector Shivaji Jondhale. “I have directed Mumbai Police to take cognisance of this, and file an FIR at the earliest. I have also called a meeting with the mangrove cell and forest department on Monday to plan restoration measures that can be implemented at the site.”

Mangrove-destruction or any activity, including reclamation, debris-dumping or construction, within 50m of mangroves was banned by the HC in September 2018. Jondhale said that the area where “flood-control measures” were taken up was an intertidal zone under the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ)-I, meaning it was of high environmental importance. “The reclamation was carried out on areas that belong to the district administration and not the club. Also, no permissions were taken for the work from different state agencies,” he said.

However, the Army reiterated its stance that no reclamation was done. “As the district administration has taken this stand, we are left with no choice to forward the matter to our legal department. While we tried protecting the boundary of the club, parallel mangrove plantation of 2,500 saplings was done, and another 1,700 saplings have been brought to the club to be planted this weekend,” said an Army officer, requesting anonymity. He also shared images of the saplings with HT. “We must consider, however, that there are apartment complexes near the club that are not only a security threat, but are also built by illegally reclaiming mangroves. The district administration needs to check its own land records and look into this as these are serious violations.”

While welcoming collector’s decision, CAT complainants said they also filed a fresh complaint as reclamation work was still underway at the site. “The delay in filing the FIR has resulted in unnecessary mangrove destruction to continue, which could have been avoided if state bodies had acted promptly,” said Debi Goenka, executive trustee, CAT.

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