Minister of Environment and Forest Suresh Prabhu told Express Newsline on Sunday that permission for denotification of a part of the national park for re-settlement cannot be allowed under the provisions of Forest Conservation Act.

The issue of denotification of part of the national park came to the fore after the State Government in reply to writ petition No 305 of 1995 has stated that only site to re-settle about 33,000 eligible families was at the very site encroached upon by them.

The state government decided to relocate 33,000-odd families on the fringes of the National Park Division (NPD) after a high-level committee under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary found that it was not possible to provide alternate sites in the city forresettling the encroachers. The government also decided to include area adjoining the park for the purpose.

Earlier, the petitioner Bombay Environmental Action Group (BEAG) had identifed four alternate sites at Nandale in Turbe (21.97 hectares), Shimpoli in Borivli (west) (12.94 hectares), Charkop at Kandivli (33 hectres) and Dindoshi at Malad (28 hectares) for the purpose of relocation.

However, the four sites were rejected after it was found that they were already earmarked for construction of government offices, staff quarters, bus depot, hospitals, secondary schools, cultural centres and gardens. Some of the land could not be considered as they violated provisions of the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ).

According to forest department records, 500 acres of the 103.9 sq km national park has been encroached. While over 15,000 hutments and structres belonging to persons not eligible were removed, about 70 acres of forest land were cleared.

Yet, the state government proposed to denotify 320 acres offorest land within the national park to house the encroachers by providing 10X15 pitches with basis amenities.

Investigations have revealed that there are still more than one lakh encroachers on the fringes and also within the core forest area of the national park. Most of the land has been encroached by local `goodas' and sold to settlers for prices ranging between Rs 3000 and Rs 10,000.

Some of the encroachments are barely two kilometers from Tulsi Lake, which provides potable water to the metropolis. Also, the settlements are located on the catchment area of the lake.

According to BEAG activist Debi Goenka, denotification of NPD if approved would be in blatant violation of the provisions of the Indian Forest Act, Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 and the Forest Conservation Act, 1980.