Mira-Bhayandar: Mangroves vanish as officials sit still over complaint for 5 months

Yet another classic case exposing the glaring insensitivity and apathy shown by the district authorities towards the protection and preservation of mangroves has come to light in Bhayandar. Despite a complaint registered by a social activist- Krishna Gupta on 13, October 2022, against dumping of debris to reclaim pristine stretches of mangroves on private land in Bhayandar (west), it took more than five months for the revenue department to register an offence against the violators.

Government allowed land sharks to continue the destruction

Moreover, the entire government machinery chose to remain mute spectators allowing the land sharks to continue with the destruction by dumping truckloads of debris and levelingEnvironment the land with brazen impunity. An offence was finally registered by Naib Tehsildar (revenue officer)-Smita Gurav under the relevant sections of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 at the Bhayandar police station on Friday. However, by then the mangroves had been wiped-off.

Moreover, none of the landowners have been named in the FIR. “After spotting the illegal dumping of debris on the mangroves, I immediately alerted the revenue department. After a cosmetic inspection, the land sharks were given ample time of more than five months to ruthlessly destroy the mangroves,” alleged Gupta. Revenue department officials attributed the delay to the lengthy process of ascertaining the exact survey number of the site amidst a vast land parcel.

Site visits were conducted by the revenue department

Although site visits were conducted by revenue department officials along with members of a sub-committee of the high-level state mangrove cell which has been formed to address complaints of mangrove destruction at the regional level, the land sharks went on to violate the stringent environment rules. Although the destruction of mangrove forests across the state and constructions within 50m of mangrove areas has been banned by the judiciary, the green belt and wetlands turned into hot bed for real estate projects in the twin-city.