Mumbai: Seven leopards in Aarey, yet eco-sensitive zone reduced for Metro

Seven leopards have been spotted in the Aarey Colony alone File picThirtyfive leopards in the Sanjay Gandhi National Park SGNP seven in Aarey colony alone and no mananimal conflict in the last two years mdash these are some of the points agreed to by the expert committee of the Ministry of Environment and Forests MoEF set up for finalising an ecosensitive zone ESZ around the SGNP Why then activists ask has it reduced the ESZ area from Aarey instead of protecting the existing green coverThe committee recently gave inprinciple approval for excluding 165 hectares in the forest from the ESZ to allow the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation MMRC to construct a car depot there The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority MMRDA had asked for 60 hectaresGreens see redGreen activists have also alleged that the MMRC misled the public as it said it requires only 30 hectares later changing it to 60 hectares The committee however granted it 165 hectares including private land and some slums explaining thatrsquos what the MMRC had asked for and pointing to the minutes of the July 5 Expert Committee meeting for declaration of ESZ in MoEFrsquos New Delhi office as proof Thus the final ESZ proposed is 5946 hectaresAlso Read Mumbai No humanleopard conflict in 2 years thanks to trimmed foliageldquoThe SGNP covers an area of 8696 hectares however the total area under the administrative control balance area yet to be notified is 10368 hectares The SGNP is spread across three districts mdash Palgar Thane and Mumbai suburbs Representatives of the state government informed that there are 35 leopards in the SGNP presently Seven leopards have been reported inside Aarey Colony alonerdquo read the minutesWildlife researchers environmentalists and activists said that knowing the leopard numbers the committee should have declared Aarey a nodevelopment zoneWildlife researcher Rajesh Sanap who was a part of the team that did the leopard monitoring study at Aarey Milk Colony for Territorial Range of the Thane FD said ldquoDuring our study we found seven leopards in the Aarey Milk Colony protecting the existing forest cover is an important thing because more development in the area means that the green cover will decrease which is not good for the wildlife as well as humansrdquoThe activists who are against a car depot in Aarey are also saying that there would be bigger protests if the depot plan were to be taken up at Aarey They added that till the matter is being heard in the National Green Tribunal NGT no construction could begin as the NGT has asked to maintain a status quo on any work in AareyEnvironment mattersTo conserve and protect the habitat in and around SGNP a draft notification SO 229E was published on January 22 declaring an ESZ around the park It is spread over an administrative area of 10368 hectares of the park while the notified area is 8696 hectares with a minimum of 100 metres and up to four kilometres from the boundary of SGNPRead Story Mumbai Poachers snare second leopard in three monthsThe minutes state ldquoComments have been received from publicstakeholders on this draft notification wherein requests have been received from various stakeholders for keeping bare minimum extent of the width of ESZ It was noted that the national park being in the centre of the city a large number of residential colonies including highrises slums office buildings and various types of human activities exist alongside the park on either side Keeping these in view the committee agreed to the statersquos proposal for a minimum extent of 100 metres and maximum extent of up to four km from the park boundary The exclusion of an area of 165 hectares land for MMRC a temple etc was also agreed to by the committeerdquoLocals sayldquoIt seems that MMRCrsquos motive is to grab green space from the colony Earlier it asked for 30 hectares then 60 After reading the minutes of the meeting we were shocked to read that they want to exclude 165 hectares from the Aarey We will oppose any such move because Aarey is not only home to seven leopards but also acts as a recreational space for the citizensrdquo said Stalin Dayanand from NGO Vanashakti and a member of the Save Aarey Conservation Group