Navi Mumbai: As resolved during the recent ‘Chalo Lotus Lake’ event held last Sunday, a delegation of concerned citizens and environmental activists met Maharashtra Forest Minister Ganesh Naik to raise urgent concerns regarding the ongoing environmental violations in Nerul, Navi Mumbai.
The delegation was led by former corporator and NCP leader Mrs. Saluja Sandeep Sutar, who formally submitted a complaint highlighting the unauthorised dumping of construction debris into the ecologically sensitive Lotus Lake in Sector 27.
The complaint emphasized how CIDCO has allegedly been dumping debris from the Navi Mumbai International Airport construction site into the protected 80-acre Lotus Lake, threatening its rich biodiversity, which includes lotus blooms, flora and fauna of fresh water lake. The lake was officially notified as a protected wetland in 2017 and is recorded in the Thane District Tehsildar’s list of wetlands.
Sutar was accompanied by community members including Santosh Karkera, Prof. Sushil Shantaram Jadhav, Vinod Shah, Adv. Chandrakant Nikam, Niranjan Shankar, Naresh Kalekar and others.
Also present during the meeting was former corporator Netra Shirke, who raised additional concerns regarding CIDCO’s failure to hand over mangroves in Sector 52A, Nerul to the Mangrove Cell under the Forest Department, despite longstanding directions. She also brought to light CIDCO’s inaction in cancelling the allotment of Plot No. 3 to private developers, despite the Forest Minister’s previous instructions to do so.
The delegation collectively urged Minister Ganesh Naik to take immediate action by halting the landfill activity in Lotus Lake, initiating an official inquiry, and ensuring CIDCO complies with environmental protocols and past directives.
In response, Minister Naik assured the group that the matter would be addressed with urgency and appropriate steps would be taken to protect the wetlands and uphold ecological safeguards in the region.
"We informed the minister that inspite of being a wetland, Cidco has given the place a plot number and have already filled it with debris from 300 trucks. He informed NMMC officer to take action against Cidco and get the debris cleared," Sutar added.
