‘No devp at the cost of
mangroves’
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Mumbai: Almost a month after the Bombay high court told the
state to safeguard mangroves around Mumbai, the Maharashtra
Coastal Zone Management Authority has directed all local
government authorities to refrain from sanctioning any more
development works which might destroy mangroves in the coastal
areas.
In a public notice issued on Friday, the authority directed
“all concerned’’ to stop any destruction or denudation of
mangroves around the city’s coastal areas. Concerned municipal
corporations, collectors and other authorities of Mumbai, Thane,
Kalyan, Dombivli and Navi Mumbai must not clear any more
development work in the five areas of Seven Bungalows in Andheri,
Kanjurmarg, Link Road in Goregaon, Gorai and Malvani village,
Malad as well as the rest of the Mumbai coastal region, the
notice specified. The five areas had been identified by the
Bombay Environment Action Group, the petitioners in a PIL on
mangroves, as ones particularly under threat from development
activity in the city.
Failure to comply with the order, the authority stated, would
result in prosecution under the Environment (Protection) Act,
1986 for which punishment could be imprisonment upto six years
and fine upto Rs one lakh. It is not clear how the authority,
which has little manpower, will monitor the implementation of
its order. However, local green activists say that the notice
will at least strengthen their case when they approach the
police about incidents of mangrove destruction in their
neighbourhood.
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