The chief conservator of forests of Thane circle, R.K. Pole, has withdrawn the forest clearance granted to the Navi Mumbai airport.
The clearance was granted on the grounds that the Navi Mumbai airport would be located more than ten km away from the Karnala bird sanctuary as has been laid out in the environmental clearance rules of the MoEF. Following pressure from Mumbai activists who actually measured the distance, Mr Pole and his team resurveyed the area and found the distance less than what had been claimed by the nodal agency City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO).
“We have conveyed our objections to the principal secretary and the Navi Mumbai authority will have to seek fresh permission from both the state wildlife advisory board and the central wildlife advisory board,” said Mr Pole.
Debi Goenka of the Bombay-based Conser-vation Action Trust said, “Birds and planes cannot co-exist. Not only will the Navi Mumbai airport prove a direct threat to the Karnala bird sanctuary but it is going to adversely affect the eco-sensitive Matheran area as also the 2000 year old rock cut Elphanta caves.”
Another detail that the MoEF had not been apprised about, activists point out, was that the airport site has 130 hectares of reserve forest.
“CIDCO will have to seek special permission to clear these forests,” Goenka asserted.
The proposed airport is also facing a land acquisition problem. It requires 2,042 hectares of land from which 1,405 hectare is already with CIDCO but 485 hectare is privately owned. These private parties are demanding much large compensation packages thereby forcing infrastructure companies to question the viability of the entire project.