Mumbai: NGO Vanashakti has served a legal notice to the BMC and to the Mangroves Cell of the state Forest department, telling them not to cut any mangroves for the coastal road north project, without obtaining Stage II permissions from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) and without complying with the Bombay High Court orders.
Project Scale: 45,000 Trees, ₹22,000 Crore
For the 26.3 km-long coastal road phase II (the Versova-Bhayandar flyover), as many as 45,000 mangrove trees will be felled, for which the HC also granted permission two months ago. The project cost is as much as Rs 22,000 crore.
The legal notice issued by the Director of Vanashakti, Stalin D states, “A final sanction has allegedly been awarded by the Mangrove Cell allowing the commencement of the felling of 45,000 mangroves for the Versova–Bhayandar Coastal Road Project. The reports constitute prima facie evidence that mangrove destruction is being allowed to proceed despite the absence of Stage-II (final) forest clearance under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980. Please note that any activity taken towards the cutting of mangroves prior to obtaining a final forest clearance (Stage II) is entirely illegal and cannot be permitted under law.”
The notice points out the high court’s binding directions that compensatory mangrove afforestation cannot be post-facto and must be simultaneous or prior to destruction.
Work at Malwani Prompted Legal Action
Stalin claims that the work inside the mangroves at Malwani for the project has begun, which prompted him to issue a legal notice. “The work inside Mangroves has started at Malwani. After seeing that we have sent the notice. We will be challenging the destruction of Mangroves in court as well,” Stalin said.
“It's a mockery of the system when work starts, and permissions are sought later. Even the High Court was not informed that the work had started on the ground. It is high time for the amount of natural habitat is destroyed for infra projects. The BMC single-handedly is responsible for decimating 1,60,000 mangroves in one year, and the HC was not informed about this,” Stalin added.
As per the BMC officials, the construction work has begun following critical mangrove cell clearance and Bombay High Court approval.
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