Mumbai civic body plots mangroves’ ruin

Development Plan proposes 37 plots and 10 roads on land covered by mangroves, which are vital to city’s ecology

Versova residents may be in for a double-whammy.

Mangroves at Versova in Mumbai, India, on Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012. (Photo by Vijayananda Gupta / Hindustan Times) (Hindustan Times)

Apart from demarcating 37 plots on land covered by mangroves, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) also wants to build 10 roads through the environmentally critical area.

The BMC has proposed the new plots and roads in its development plan (DP), a blueprint that it has prepared to shape the city’s growth over the next two decades. Of the 10 roads, five will be on land covered by mangroves and five, including four connectors to the proposed coastal road, will partly abut them.

Mangroves act as buffers between the sea and the land and form a critical part of the eco-system. Environmentalists said destroying them will damage the city’s ecology and make it more vulnerable to natural disasters like tsunamis and tidal flooding.

Apart from posing a threat to ecology, the proposals also contradict the BMC’s public stance of not opening up environmentally sensitive areas to any sort of development. These roads had not featured in the DP the BMC had drafted last year, which was later scrapped. Angry residents said the civic body was negligent and had not applied its mind. They said constructing buildings and roads on mangroves will spell doom for the city’s ecology. “Many of these roads (if made) will run parallel to each other. To add to it, we also have the coastal road coming up, which is likely to lead to the destruction of mangroves,” said a resident. BMC officials said the ministry of environment and forests permits such roads.

“The rules say that such roads can be built on stilts. They were first proposed in the previous DP of 1991. We have retained them,” said an official from the DP department. The civic officials weren’t able to explain the rationale behind constructing five roads through such eco-sensitive areas in the same neighbourhood.

Rishi Aggarwal, an environmentalist involved with the preservation of mangroves, said, “The BMC’s attitude on environmental issues borders on arrogance. It doesn’t feel the need to consult residents on whether the roads are needed or not. Since the coastal road has been approved, it can’t browbeat citizens into accepting such ecologically-damaging proposals.”