Mangroves: 3,000 hectares notified as ‘protected forests’

The new notification, issued last week, covers the mangroves in the Borivali, Andheri and Kurla talukas as well as parts of Colaba, a senior official from the Forest Department said.

According to J P Dange, additional chief secretary (revenue and forests): “We have acted on a High Court ruling which ordered mapping and notification of mangroves in the state. Last year, we notified about 2,157 hectares. Now, 3,431 hectares have been added to it.”

With this, notification of 5,589 hectares of the 6,000 hectares of mangroves identified in Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai has been completed.

Vivek Kulkarni, mangrove expert and member of NGO Conservation Action Trust (CAT), said: “This was a long pending issue and the new notification is a welcome move. With this, nearly 90 per cent of the mangroves in the extended city have been notified. However, the ruling was for the protection of mangroves in the entire state and that mammoth job is still pending.”

Kulkarni pointed out that not notifying mangroves along the state’s coastline has already caused much harm to the valuable mangroves. “Along the Malvan coast, mangrove land is being sold by builders at Rs 7-8 lakh per acre today. A few years ago it was barely Rs 7,000-8,000 per acre,” he said.

In October 2005, in response to a PIL filed by Bombay Environmental Action Group (BEAG), the High Court had ordered “a total freeze on the destruction and cutting of mangroves in Maharashtra”.

The court ruled that the mangroves be mapped and notified as “protected forests” within a deadline of eight months. The government was asked to hand over its land to the Forest Department by August 2006.