Illegal dumping at Andheri mangroves

Illegal dumping of debris has been going on unchecked on 400 acres of mangroves in Andheri’s Millat Nagar area for a month now, claim local residents, reports Soubhik Mitra.

Illegal dumping of debris has been going on unchecked on 400 acres of mangroves in Andheri’s Millat Nagar area for a month now, claim local residents.

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Several residents, who witnessed the dumping, alerted an environment group, which shot videos of the dumping.

Rishi Agarwal of the environmental group Mangrove Society of India, shot the video last week acting on a tip-off from Shariyaar Khan, a local resident.

“I have been reading about climate change and how mangroves are important to save the planet. Therefore I reported the matter,” said Khan.

The video was shot from the terrace of nearby building. Nearly 300 trucks have dumped their loads on the mangrove patch over the past month, claimed Agarwal.

He and local residents allege the cops are in on it.

Pravin Chaudhary, another Millat Nagar resident, said that he has seen cops at the dumping site. “The Oshiwara police station is a short walk from the threatened area. Police vans keep patrolling the area but nobody has stopped the illegal dumping,” he said.

In 2005, the Bombay High Court had ordered a ban on construction or dumping activity within 50 metres of mangrove areas in the state.

Mangroves act as a buffer between land and sea and help prevent floods. Dumped debris cuts off the water supply to the mangroves thus killing them slowly.

The video and a complaint regarding the illegal dumping has been posted on a website, mumbaimangroves.wordpress.com.

Agarwal has also e-mailed a complaint alleging police inaction to the state environment secretary, Valsa Nair, and the Union environment minister, Jairam Ramesh.

“I have alerted the police and revenue machinery to take urgent action in this case,” Nair said. A team from the district collector’s office will file a report after investigating the allegations.

“The truck drivers involved in the incident were questioned but they claimed that the dumping was done on marshy land and not the mangroves. We will take action on the basis of the collector’s report,” said K.M.M. Prasanna, deputy commissioner of police. However, there is still no police deployment to guard the patch.

Between 1999-2000, almost 500 trucks of debris were dumped on a portion of the Millat Nagar mangrove patch everyday to flatten the area for a golf course and villa scheme. On September 30, 2002, the evidence was presented to Ministry of Environment and Forest, which immediately revoked the permission and the dumping stopped.

Finally in 2004 the Bombay Environment Action Group challenged the menace in the Supreme Court, which ordered that the dumping be stopped.