In the course of a hearing on the petition of the Bombay Environmental Action Group (BEAG), counsel for the state government R V Govilkar informed the court that it has earmarked around 575 hectares of land in Thane, Vasai and Kalyan for the rehabilitation of 33,000 hutments within the Borivli National Park. While the court had ordered that the 98-kms wall around the park be constructed within a year, Govilkar sought more time since till date thegovernment has been able to construct only one km of the proposed boundary.

The petitioners had urged judicial intervention to protect the national park from encroachments. When the high court had in 1997 ordered that no encroachments be allowed within the park, the government had then pleaded that it had a policy of rehabilitating slumdwellers who had settled there before January 1, 1995.

The bench made it clear that denotification of any section of the park would not be possible as this was the only green space in Mumbai and should be protected at all costs. Moreover, for its water supply the city depended on lakes like Tulsi and Vihar located inside the national park. The judge pointed out that while major projects like building a wall around and deployment of State Reserve Police in the park has been overlooked, only works have been carried out.

Earlier, the Union Minister of Environment and Forests Suresh Prabhu confirmed to this newspaper that denotification of a part of the national park was notpossible under the provisions of the Indian Forests Act and the Forest Conservation Act, 1980.

BEAG activist Debi Goenka said park officials have only effected petty changes like not allowing vehicles in the core area of the park and discontinuation of electric and water supply to the illegal settlers. The other major issue of filling 50 posts have been left in the cold, Goenka added.

While Govilkar pleaded for the state of Maharashtra, advocate Janak Dwarkadas, Mustafa Doctor and Vivek Diwan appeared for the petitioner BEAG.