Include 210-ha vacant patch in SGNP: NGO
MUMBAI: A Mumbai-based environment group has written to the Maharashtra chief minister (CM) and the forest department recommending the inclusion of an estimated 210 hectares (ha) of vacant green land in Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP), in a bid to compensate for forest land which has been lost to encroachers. The 210ha are divided across eight land parcels that abut the periphery of SGNP in Thane, Vihar Lake, Goregaon, Kandivli, Malad, Mira Road and Dahisar.
In its recent letter to CM (dated August 20, and shared with HT last week), non-governmental organisation (NGO) Vanashakti also drew attention to a final judgment of the Bombay high court (HC), passed in 2004, which ordered that about 200ha of encroachments inside the national park be removed and resettled.
Despite efforts, however, encroachments within the park have continued to balloon, and an official forest department report in 2019 had estimated about a tenth of SGNP’S 10,300-ha land cover to be under encroachment, with over 25,000 illegal structures inside the park.
According to Vanashakti, there are about 30,000 nontribal families (approximately 75,000 people) living within SGNP’S boundary.
“Resettling them is nearly impossible, given the lack of space in the city,” wrote Stalin D, director, Vanashakti, in his letter to CM, which was subsequently referred to the forest secretary for action by the chief minister’s office. Stalin also pointed out the presence of large slum clusters within the park in Damu Nagar, Akurli, Poisar, Yeoor, Thane and Mulund.
“We propose the state government stop this seemingly never ending dilemma. It is best to excise these areas from the park’s boundaries and include open spaces abutting the park. The slums may be given basic amenities and monitored using physical ground truthing, video shooting, geo spatial and biometric verification methods. We have made a preliminary survey using Google Earth and also through ground visits. Our estimation is that around 210ha of open green spaces exist around the park which can be assimilated into it using the Maharashtra Private Forests (Acquisition) Act, 1975,” Stalin wrote in his letter.
The majority of the land proposed for inclusion in the park fall under the ‘no development zone’ land use category, and are also within the notified ecosensitive zone (ESZ) of SGNP. Another demand placed before the authorities is that of constructing a boundary wall, which was also one of the mandates given by HC 17 years ago. However, at many places, SGNP continues to have a porous boundary and the construction of the wall remains incomplete due to religious and political reasons. For example, the wall at the Mulund (West) border of the park has not been completed due to the presence of the Ayappa temple. Similar obstructions have prevented the boundary wall from coming up in Akurli and Kandivli areas, among others.
It is argued that such a move – finishing the boundary wall after inclusion of new land parcels within SGNP – will be the most practical to execute as it will not require displacement or resettlement of affected persons.
“Almost 17 years after a court order, non-tribal encroachments have not yet been removed from SGNP. Instead, thousands of new encroachments have come up and hundred plus acres of forest are lost. Hence, we have requested the government to seal off the slums and make a wall closing off the park’s boundaries from further anthropogenic intrusions,” said Stalin D.
Despite attempts, SGNP officials were unavailable for a comment.