Acting on a Bombay high court order, the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) has issued a showcause notice to the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) for violating norms in the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) of Kanjurmarg.
The notice states that due to dumping woks carried out by the civic body, mangroves have been affected and asks it to maintain a status quo for any work till the decision on the showcause notice is pending.
The MoEF notice, a copy of which is available with The Asian Age, clearly mentions blatant violations carried out by the MCGM in the wetlands. The notice alleges that a 12-feet high boundary wall was constructed all around the 141.77 hectares located in the CRZ-III category area of Kanjurmarg without seeking permission from the ministry. The MoEF asked it to file a reply as to why action shouldn’t be taken against it for the violations.
In the August 3, 2013 edition, this newspaper had reported that MoEF’s report was submitted before the court on August 2 and that the MCGM indeed dumped beyond the permissible limit of 65 hectares affecting the mangroves in the region. The petitioners — local MLA Mangesh Sangale and NGO Vanashakti — in their public interest litigation had submitted before the court that the Supreme Court has through several orders and directions declared mangroves to be equivalent to forests.
“My contention is that the land falls between an area of high tide and low tide and, therefore, it falls under CRZ-I and not CRZ-III. There are various species of birds and other species of animals inhabiting the marshland,” said Mr Sangle.