Mhada set to build homes for SGNP tribals in Aarey

The state recently handed over a 90-acre (36-hectare) plot in Aarey Milk Colony, Goregaon, to the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada) to house

The state recently handed over a 90-acre (36-hectare) plot in Aarey Milk Colony, Goregaon, to the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada) to house encroachers cleared from the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) and slums in Aarey.

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One-tenth of the city’s national park is currently encroached upon, with 28,951 illegal structures built inside as well as around the periphery of SGNP covering 2,780 acres. The Bombay high court (HC) in 2009 ordered removal of encroachers from the park and their resettlement. Mhada vice-president and chief executive officer Milind Mhaiskar confirmed the land was given to them. The authority plans to construct 26,959 housing units at a cost of ₹3,510 crore in two phases. Of the 90 acres, 43 acres will be used to rehabilitate 1,795 tribal families (living across 13,486 hutments) from SGNP in 300 sqft houses with an open courtyard and terrace, while hundreds of slum dwellers from within Aarey and surrounding areas will be resettled in 300sqft apartments on the balance 47-acre area. SGNP director and chief conservator of forest Anwar Ahmed termed it a solution to encroachments inside the SGNP.

In June 2019, the state signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), and handed over 190 acres inside Aarey close to Marol Maroshi Road. A zoological park with a jungle safari and a centre to breed endangered species have been planned across 100 acres from this plot and an additional 140 acres from the state’s dairy development department.

BMC commissioner Praveen Pardeshi said the tenements can be completed within two years, but the work has been delayed as the sale value of the plot is not favourable and there are no effective bids yet. “Of the 190 acres handed over in June last year, 90 acres will be used for the Mhada project. The project will ease the pressure of encroachments on the national park,” said Pardeshi.

Mhada will exchange transfer of development rights (TDR) instead of paying the contractor who builds the project. TDR allows a developer to transfer construction rights from one plot to another. “Currently, Mhada is offering 1.25 TDR, which is not good. There is no sale component available,” said Pardeshi. “We will try to enhance the compensation to the person who builds the project. The other option is to bid the sale value to set the right price.”

Activists fear that the project will open doors for more real estate projects in Aarey and lead to large-scale tree felling. Development has been planned on 443.67 acres in Aarey, including the Metro-3 car depot. According to a study by the Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute of Architecture and Environmental Studies (KRVIA), 40% of the original area of the green lung will be lost due to ongoing and proposed construction activities. This would sever the contiguity with SGNP affecting wildlife movement, disrupting hydrological processes and the natural drainage pattern of the green lung, the study said.

“The Mhada project is coming up on SGNP’s fragile eco-sensitive zone. Politicians claim that Aarey will be protected. Aarey is already a forest, and resettling tribals from one end of the forest to another does not make sense,” said Zoru Bhathena, petitioner in the Aarey tree-felling case.

Another petitioner pointed out that a subsequent 2012 order by the same HC bench (Justices P D Naik and Abhay Oka) that had ordered that rehabilitation of encroachers from SGNP in 2009, prohibited resettlement of tribals and slum dwellers in Aarey. “Bringing one-and-a-half lakh people into Aarey forests is not the way to conserve and protect this green lung. It is evident that powerful entities are driving the plan to destroy Aarey,” said Stalin D, director, Vanshakti