2 years after HC order, only 20 of 60 sq km mangroves notified as protected forest

Responding to a PIL filed by Bombay Environmental Action Group (BEAG), the High Court in October 2005 had ordered “a total freeze on the destruction and cutting of mangroves in Maharashtra”. For this, the court ruled that a mapping of mangroves be done-and notified-within eight months. The government was also asked to hand over its mangrove lands to the Forest Department by August 2006.

Debi Goenka, president of BEAG, says: “The mapping was completed by the state-appointed Maharashtra Remote Sensing Application Centre and about 60 sq km of land was shown.”

However, while the mapping was completed, a major area of mangroves was never notified.

The court will now hear the issue on February 7.

Meanwhile, mangrove activists impatiently wait for the notification. “The notification needs to be complete for us to take any action against encroachment. The case has been on for two years now and in the meantime, hacking of mangroves continues in different places. Once all the mangroves are declared as protected forests, steps can be taken against offenders,” points out environmentalist Rishi Agarwal. Environmentalists and mangrove experts also point out that while a draft notification for all mangrove lands was indeed prepared and forwarded to other departments, the final notification dropped several areas.

In February 2007, the Forest Department asked eight state departments to state the exact location of the area they wanted to leave out of the notification and clear reasons for doing so. A letter addressed to the Environment, Revenue, Urban Development, Housing, Fisheries, Public Works, Transport and Energy departments said: “… every department should approach the high court separately as they will have specific small areas to defend and would be in a better position to justify the area requirement”.

According to BEAG, following this letter, 41 organisations filed affidavits in court, including some private builders. One such affidavit was by CIDCO, which claimed that the land in question had no mangroves at all.

When contacted, Additional Chief Secretary (Forest) J P Dange said: “Some respondents have put in affidavits and the court proceedings are on. The matter is sub judice and I can’t comment on it.”