Thursday, Apr 18, 2024 | Last Update : 09:22 PM IST
CIDCO, developer told to clear debris from Seawoods
The forest department has inspected the site and noted that debris upto three metres was being dumped in the area.
Mumbai: The Bombay high court has pulled up the City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra (CIDCO) and developer, Mistry Constructions, for dumping debris in the Seawoods wetland area.
In the wake of a petition by Sunil Agarwal, a resident of Nerul, drawing attention to the destruction of the wetland area behind the NRI complex, the forest department inspected the site earlier this week. It noted that debris up to three metre was being dumped in the wetland area, where a residential project and a golf course had been proposed. Forest officials informed that one of the project’s boundaries lay inside the water body. The court then ordered the developer to remove the debris from the site before April 13.
The Asian Age earlier reported that the state government, in 2016, had de-notified around 67.85 hectare of wetland from the no-development zone (NDZ) to the ‘regional park’, including a golf course and predominantly residential zone. However, a RTI query by the petitioner revealed that the complete project, divided into six pockets, would take over nearly 80 hectare of wetland by one builder for a residential project, which included 17 residential buildings with 1,564 flats, 20 offices, and a golf course.
The report submitted by the forest department said that a major portion of the 12 hectare land - categorised as pocket “A” from the mentioned site
is a water body and mangroves are seen on the fringes. "Pocket B and Pocket C are contiguous water bodies and sparse mangroves are seen on the fringes,” the report read. The report also mentioned of no destruction of mangrove. Pocket B and C are wetland areas identified in the wetland inventory. Even a part of pocket A is a wetland area with few mangroves and bunds,” said Jayarame Gowda, Deputy Conservator of Forest, Mangrove Cell.
Residents have lauded the move stating that the direction regarding removing the dumped debris would serve as an example to builders that destroy environment without the settling the legal matters. “While the developer mentioned in the court that debris has been removed in February only, the court pointed out that it is the present report by Forest Department which shows debris at the site. The court’s direction is a welcome move as this will teach developers not to take environmental laws lightly,” said Sunil Agarwal, the petitioner.
