State notifies 1,500ha of mangrove land as reserved forest area

The total reserved forest area within Maharashtra has reached 16,700ha

The Maharashtra government, on Tuesday, notified around 1,388 ha in Thane as reserved forest land under section 4 of the Indian Forest Act (IFA), 1927. 1,575 ha of mangrove areas in Raigad, Sindhudurg, Thane and suburban Mumbai will be handed over to the Forest Department for better conservation under section 20 of IFA, 1927.

With this, the total reserved forest area in Maharashtra reached 16,700 ha.

In a gazette notification issued on Tuesday, the state Revenue and Forest Departments announced that 1,387.39 ha of mangrove land across 14 villages in Thane has now been declared as a reserved forest area. Meanwhile, in another notification, the state has also notified 1,575.16 ha of mangrove land along the Maharashtra coast, which is likely to be handed over to the Forest Department for better conservation almost 16 years af ter the Bombay High Court directed the government to do so.

The protected forest areas under Section 20 of the Indian Forests Act include those in Sawantwadi, Vengurla, Kudal, Malvan and Devgad talukas of Sindhudurg, Shrivardhan of Raigad and Kandivali, Dahisar, Eksar, Gorai, Varsova, Bandra and Juhu of Mumbai suburban, apart from 32 villages in Bhiwandi. Those in Thane district include villages such as Chendani, Mumbra, Mhatradi, Sonkar, Diva, Kalshet, Balkum, Kalwa, Parsik, Ghudbunder, Uttan, Bhayandar, and Morava. With this, the total reserved forest area in Maharashtra reached 16,700 ha.

In 2005, in an interim order, the HC had said that all mangrove areas on government land were to be handed over to the Forest Department. The HC reiterated its order on September 18, 2018. However, district bodies are yet to hand over 1,592.8 ha and state agencies, such as the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), have failed to transfer approximately 1,147 ha falling under their jurisdiction to the department.

“The mangrove red-tapism is shocking to say the least,” said BN Kumar, director of NatConnect Foundation.