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Monday Musings: High Court revives hope for Pune’s Dr Salim Ali Bird Park
It seemed obvious that a powerful conspiracy was at work to get rid of the bird park at Kalyaninagar and open the land for real estate development
This newspaper has been persistently reporting on the fate of the Dr Salim Ali Bird Park at Yerawada which is facing serious threat of being wiped out of existence. This threat has been so serious that on May 14, we asked whether the bird park was indeed headed for a slow, painful death.
Last week’s development in the Bombay High Court has roused a glimmer of hope for the bird park. Acting on a public interest litigation, Chief Justice Naresh Patil and Justice MS Karnik ordered a status quo on the construction activity undertaken on two acres of land that was dereserved inside the bird sanctuary.
Appearing for the petitioners, Satish Khot and Bijoy Guha, both citizen-activists from Kalyaninagar, senior counsel Aspi Chinoy and Soma Singh, pointed out the “arbitrary manner’’ in which two acres, in the middle of bird sanctuary, had been de-reserved and released to a builder, resulting in a break of contiguity for the reserve.
In previous months, Saurabh Rao, as Pune municipal commissioner and previously as the Pune district collector, was firm in assuring that he would protect the bird park at all costs. He even made a visit to the park with a large crowd of enthusiastic residents and citizen-activists, which was highly appreciated.
However, the ground reality was far different: the bird park was not provided with security by the Pune Municipal Corporation or the district authorities and was being regularly used as a dumping ground for garbage. Soon, one got to see the cutting and burning of trees which seemed to be done deliberately by miscreants to discourage those who were trying to revive it.
Things turned for the worse when it was discovered early this year that by virtue of a modification in the Development Plan (modification M 5.91), permission had been given to some land owners to construct high rise buildings on the river bank. These plots are right in the middle of the bird sanctuary, thus cutting the land reserved for the park into two separate parts.
As though this were not enough, PMC has itself undertaken the construction of a road from the HSBC tower to Gunjan chowk for which about 150 trees have been axed and another 350 are on the block.
Thus, it seemed obvious that a powerful conspiracy was at work behind the de-reservation, thus opening the green patch of the bird park at Kalyaninagar to real estate development. This would clearly mean the end of the Yerawada Birding Point, later named after the great ornithologist Dr. Salim Ali who had visited this spot, frequented by at least 30 different species of birds, including ruddy shelduck, red wattled lapwings and black headed ibis.
The PIL and the Bombay High Court intervention have revived hopes for the bird park. What is needed are decisive directives to save the park. Pune is hopeful that things will move in the right direction and the bird park will stand preserved.
abhay.vaidya@htlive.com
