Friday, Apr 19, 2024 | Last Update : 05:47 AM IST
Nerul still waits for pet garden
The park in Sector 13, Nerul was earlier allotted to Regional Transport Office, for setting up parking area for seized vehicles.
Mumbai: A park in Nerul, Navi Mumbai, which was to be turned into a ‘pet garden’ during the municipal elections, has not seen any change. Citizens and activists have strived for the last two years to save the garden from commercial exploitation.
The National Congress Party’s (NCP) agenda during the civic elections mentioned that a dog park would be created in the ward, and civic officials assured residents that their pleas to turn the Nerul Park into a pet garden would be heard. Two years since the garden was saved, citizens are enraged as no pets are allowed in the same garden anymore now. NCP’s Netra Shirke, who is the ward corporator, told The Asian Age that a pet garden was not feasible in the Nerul plot as it may create human-animal conflict.
“We will be developing the pet garden on a plot adjacent to the Nerul nullah near the pumping station as it hardly visited by people. There will be two different plots for the pet garden and regular garden with separate entrances to prevent human-animal conflict,” she said. “We are also in talks for providing playing equipment for pets in the park and coming up with a policy to register pets with the NMMC,” Ms Shirke said.
The park in Sector 13, Nerul was earlier allotted to Regional Transport Office, for setting up parking area for seized vehicles. “While the citizens helped in saving the park from becoming a vehicle dump, it came as a shock to us that no pets are allowed in the same park. Instead, they are coming up with the pet garden in a small plot less of than 1,000 square feet near the nullah. The park that was saved by us is around 5000 square metres. There is not much footfall in the garden also that could lead to man-animal conflict,” said Arati Chauhan, a Nerul-based activist.
“We have been taking our pets to the garden as there is no pet garden in Nerul. The civic officials also promised us that the same garden would be turned into a pet garden but now I cannot take my own dog into the park,” said D. Supriya, a resident of the area.
