‘Raze 55 illegal structures on mangroves in Thane by Dec’

The Bombay high court (HC) has directed the collector of Thane district to carry out the demolition of 55 illegal structures that have cropped up on mangrove land

The Bombay high court (HC) has directed the collector of Thane district to carry out the demolition of 55 illegal structures that have cropped up on mangrove land in Mumbra and Diva. The collector has till the end of the year to complete the demolition, and submit a compliance report in January 2020.

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The structures in Mumbra include an extension to a police station. A division bench of chief justice Pradeep Nandrajog and justice Bharati Dangre, while hearing the public interest litigation filed by Iraqi Arif, a social worker from Mumbra, was told by advocate Kayval Shah that mangroves had been cut indiscriminately since 2005. In his PIL, he had pointed to many instances where such activities had also taken place on state’s land.

The court had in July directed the tehsildar to come up with a list of such properties where unauthorised destruction of mangroves had taken place. On Tuesday, the tehsildar submitted the list, wherein 24 properties in Mumbra and 31 in Diva were found in violation of mangrove land rules.The list enumerated structures that had been illegally built on government land which had been given to private persons and societies to build residential premises.

The court then directed the collector to ensure that the unauthorised structures were demolished and work on restoration of the mangroves was undertaken on the said land by the end of the year. The bench also directed the collector to submit a compliance report by January 2020.