Downside seen to Mumbai boom

Concerned citizens are raising an alarm over environmental dangers being faced by the city

Rampant destruction of mangroves along Mumbai’s coast and reckless quarrying of hillsides in Navi Mumbai are converting the boom in Mumbai and its neighbouring districts into an environmental doom, environmentalists say.

With Earth Day 2018 being marked today under the theme ‘End to Plastic Pollution’, concerned citizens here are raising an alarm over all round environmental dangers being faced by the city.

At a #BoomCityDoomCity campaign held on Friday, ‘Mangrove Warrior’ Nandakumar Pawar said, “Mumbai and its surroundings will face a terrible environmental disaster if the all-round wanton destruction continues,” he said.

Destruction of mangroves

He said quarrying at Parsik Hills in Navi Mumbai had resumed, after a quarry operator obtained an environmental clearance for blasting at Borivli village in an industrial area of Mahape.

He said he was extremely worried about the systematic destruction of mangroves, that have a unique ecosystem of protecting coastal areas from erosion as well as storm surge and tsunamis. While there has been rampant dumping of debris and garbage over mangroves that are gradually being usurped by builders, “the destruction is also happening at the official level. Even the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust has destroyed mangroves and built a road.”

Armed with photographs as proof of this environmental ravage, as well as of quarrying in Parsik Hills, he said the deputy conservator of forests, Thane, had said at a meeting of the district level environment assessing authority that as much 264.10 hectares has been mined against the permissible area of 138.07 hectares.