Private structures come up on Thane wetlands: Times of India

NAVI MUMBAI: Despite a two-year-old public interest litigation (PIL 87 of 2013) on wetlands in the Bombay High Court and a report of the forest department detailing illegal activities on protected wetlands, environmentalists say private structures are mushrooming on the Dive-Anjur stretch along Thane-Bhiwandi road.

In July 2014, following a Bombay High Court directive, the chief conservator of forests (mangrove cell) N Vasudevan submitted a damning report to the HC about the destruction of wetlands around Mumbai. One of these sites mentioned in the report was the 1.5km stretch of Dive-Anjur in Bhiwandi taluka. On Tuesday, the NGO Vanashakti, the petitioner in the PIL, said more damage has been done at Dive-Anjur and private commercial structures have come up after brazen reclamation of mangroves, bypassing CRZ laws. In the formal submitted report last year, Vasudevan stated that certain private structures were coming up on the 1.5km long wetlands, after illegal dumping of debris.

Activist D Stalin of Vanashakti told TOI: "In the last two years since we filed a PIL in the high court on protection of wetlands, there has been massive destruction of mangroves along the 1.5km stretch between Dive and Anjur, on both sides of the Thane-Bhiwandi road. Close to 2,000 truckloads of earth and debris have been dumped on the mangroves to reclaim the creek land."

"The Thane collectorate could not protect the wetlands here. As petitioners, we have sent a notice to the government authority in this regard and will tell the court about it in the next hearing on June 11,'' Stalin said.

However, the Thane collector Ashwini Joshi denied the NGO's allegation of contempt of court. "Our Bhiwandi taluka officials and I have also inspected the Dive Anjur stretch in the past and done everything to conserve the wetlands. We have also opened up the blocked water channels so that the creek water can freely flow to the mangroves,'' said Joshi.

She added that besides filing FIRs against the illegal activities, the officials are also stalling any dumpers entering the wetlands. With regards to the private structures coming up at the spot, the collector stated that those are on "private land".

Bhiwandi tehsildar Vaishali Lambhate told TOI: "The latest FIR was filed around a month back against certain persons for damaging wetlands on the Dive-Anjur stretch." However, when TOI asked the Thane collector how certain structures have come up next to the Thane-Bhiwandi road, Joshi said: "The said structures have come up on a private land plot, and not in the wetland."

Stalin, though, said there is no way that any private land plot can exist in what where once lush green mangroves.

Times View

Complete destruction of these mangroves over period of two years, despite assurances by the government in a court, is shocking. More disconcerting, the government agencies tasked with protecting these environmental assets have just stood by and watched it. The state machinery should show the willingness to walk the talk. Merely going through the motions, such as filing an FIR, is not enough.