India: 5,800 hectares of mangroves line city

Shibu Thomas Times of India 16 Dec 11;
MUMBAI: Six years after the Bombay High Court ordered a stop to the destruction of mangroves, Mumbai and its neighbouring areas now boast of more than 5,800 hectares of mangrove land designated as protected forests.

According to environmental activists , even by conservative estimates, the move has ensured more than 2,500 hectares of open green space in the city and its suburbs. The state forest department recently set up a special mangrove cell to oversee their protection on Maharashtra's coasts.

This was not the situation at the start of the decade when mangroves were indiscriminately hacked to make way for multi-storey apartments. There was also rampant dumping of debris and garbage on such plots. A sustained campaign by environmental groups, finally leading to the high court order, ensured that the city's remaining mangroves were brought under the umbrella of the forest department.

"To a large extent, land-grabbing in mangrove areas by unscrupulous builders in the city has stopped. This was the biggest threat to mangroves in urban areas," said Debi Goenka of the Bombay Environmental Action Group, which had filed the public interest litigation in the high court to protect mangroves.

Besides calling an end to the destruction of mangroves, the high court had also directed the state to conduct satellite mapping of the coast to identify mangrove land and then designate each as protected forests.

Around 5,800 hectares of land in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Thane with mangrove cover was notified as protected forests and handed over to the forest department. The state is now in the process of designating more than 26,000 hectares of coastal land in the rest of Maharashtra as forests.

"Earlier, though mangroves were under the purview of the Coastal Regulation Zone, the authorities were hardly bothered about protecting them. But the tag of forests has made it difficult for developers to obtain permission," said Goenka.

However, Goenka hastened to add that it still does not mean mangroves in the city are safe. "Day-to-day problems such as dumping of debris still exist," Goenka said. Vigilant local citizen groups have so far ensured that offenders are brought to book.

The most recent case include that of builder Jayesh Shah who was ordered by the Supreme Court to open the bunds he had constructed and remove debris that would have led to the extinction of more than 400 acres of mangroves in Dahisar.