Navi Mumbai development plan appears set to destroy 8.222 hectares of forest land

CIDCOrsquos Navi Mumbai development plan appears to spell doom for forest land CIDCO is to construct a coastal road from jalmarg sector 16 Kharghar to sector 11 in CBD Belapur and a balance link between sector 15 CBD Belapur and a water transport terminal in Nerul at Navi Mumbai in Thane districtAccording to the proposal sent to the Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change MOEFampCC last week the project involves diversion of 8222 hectares of forest land It also involves the use of 30327 hectares of nonforest landCIDCO has prepared a Navi Mumbai development plan which covers 95 villages and many well planned and selfsustained nodes which include Airoli Ghansoli Koparkhairane Vashi Sanpada Juinagar Nerul Belapur Kharghar Kamothe New Panvel Kalamboli Ulwe Pushpak and DronagiriAlso read Maharashtra Forest department NGO save injured leopard cubRising populationInitially CIDCOrsquos focus for development was in Vashi Sanpada CBD Koparkhairane and Airoli These nodes were developed completely in 1990 and subsequently handed over to Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation in 1994 This part of Navi Mumbai is referred to as Navi Mumbai North Thereafter on arrival of the harbour railway line from Mankhurd to New Panvel in 1990 there was tremendous increase in the population in Navi Mumbai when CIDCO had to shift its development focus to other nodes like Kharghar Kamothe New Panvel Ulwe and Dronagiri These nodes that come under Raigad district are now referred to as Navi Mumbai southKharghar node is one of the planned nodes of CIDCO and is supposed to be the most modern Kharghar is primarily a residential township and has several education institutes in its fold At present there is only one entry to this node which is known as Pravesh Marg of Kharghar node The other entry is CBD node via Bharati Vidyapeeth which connects to the Pandav Marg of Kharghar node There is yet other entry at Kopara village but it is very narrow and cannot be termed as a permanent entry So as such there is only one major entry to this node in the form of Pravesh Marg The coastal road hence aims to provide connectivityCIDCOrsquos justificationCIDCO has justified the project in forest area stating ldquoThe government lands wherein mangroves are found are to be declared as Protected Forest as per a High Court order The mangroves forest pockets are scattered near the creeks As stipulated in the specific condition of the environmental and CRZ clearance necessary permission of the high court as well as forest department for cutting of mangroves is required to be obtained by CIDCO for the project The project area is devoid of any rare or endangered flora and faunardquoCIDCO in its proposal has also stated that efforts were made to replan the area excluding the forestland It said ldquoIt was feared that a major part of the layout may have to be cancelled hence there appears no option but to include forestland considering unavoidable circumstances CIDCO was constrained to submit a proposal for diversion of forestlandrdquoActivist speakldquoThatrsquos huge destruction and loss At a time when we need to preserve and increase the mangrove cover due to coastal land erosion and rising sea levels we are increasingly working on cutting mangroves This news coming as it does on the fourth anniversary of the High Court judgment to conserve mangroves is terriblerdquo said B N Kumar director NatConnect Foundation