Mumbai: The greens have welcomed the recent Bombay High Court judgement slamming the lackadaisical approach of all development authorities like BMC, MMRDA and others towards compensatory mangroves and trees plantation against massive infrastructure projects in Mumbai. On September 9, the HC permitted MMRDA to commence construction of Kasheli depot for Mumbai Metro 5, however directed to complete the plantations on 370-400 mangrove saplings and trees in Dhule by September 30.
During the hearing, the HC also condemned practice of the development/planning authorities to approach the court at the eleventh hour, seeking urgent permissions to cut the trees and mangroves, while pressing that any delay would escalate project cost, when the authorities know route and design of the project point A to Z well in advance. The bench of justices Dr Neela Gokhale and Revati Mohite Dere also directed that in large-scale mangrove loss, afforestation shall be planned in alternate degraded mangrove areas in the same district/region.
Advocate Aditya N Mehta, who appeared for Bombay Environment Action Group (BEAG- one of the respondents) and assisted the HC in the September 9 judgement said, "It sets out binding safeguards for all future permissions involving cutting of mangroves. "The Court has also directed the state authorities to give BEAG seven days prior notice before carrying out compensatory afforestation to enable BEAG to depute its representative to have oversight over the plantation. In my opinion, this order turns environmental ‘conditions’ into public, trackable obligations. Geo-tagging and a live portal make compliance visible and enforceable so development does not come at the cost of our coast," Advocate Mehta added.
Anil Pandit from BEAG said, "The court made an important point that compensatory mangroves plantations has to be in the same district/region and not hundreds of kilometres away. For the Kasheli depot, the mangroves are cut in Thane and compensatory afforestation being done at Dhule, 345 kms away from Mumbai and no plantation is done at Thane. For ecological balance, it is important to plant more trees and mangroves in the districts which is loosing it's green cover."
Environmentalist and founder of Conversation Action Trust, Debi Goenka said, "This is a very welcome order and long overdue. This will hopefully stop the indiscriminate cutting of mangroves under the guise of development. It is extremely important that government cannot be allowed to destroy our natural infrastructure that provides us with life support and replace it with concrete and steel. The forest department must provide full details of the compensatory mangrove plantations carried out successfully so far, and the MCZMA must explain why it has failed to monitor compliance of its clearance conditions."
Some of the directions made by the HC:
1. Trees/mangroves to be planted first before cutting for infrastructure project
2. BEAG to be given 7 days advance intimation when afforestation is proposed so that a representative is present on site
3. Dedicated website to be update every four months with details and documents of the approval and afforestation with respect to the project
4. Plantation to take place in close proximity where the trees/mangroves to be cut/affected
5. Approval to be taken for entire project and not in piece meal
6. If the project is modified then fresh Environment Impact Assessment for the whole project and not just for the modified portion
7. Mangroves patches to be Geotagged and GIS mapped
To get details on exclusive and budget-friendly property deals in Mumbai & surrounding regions, do visit: https://budgetproperties.in/
