The Mumbai high court is not pleased with the state government’s failure to declare about 4,000 hectares of mangroves, as protected forestland.
The state had decided to keep out around 4,000 hectares of coastal mangroves from the protective arms of the Forest Act. A division bench of Chief Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice Dhananjay Chandrachud on Wednesday directed the state to explain why the areas had not been notified as "protected forests". This is in response to a petition was filed by the Bombay Environmental Action Group (BEAG) against the government.
In January 2007, the state had issued a notification declaring mangroves spread around 2,157 hectares (20 sq km) as “protected forests’’. In the process, however, around 4,000 hectares were left out and the state had asked its various departments and civic bodies for suggestions whether the remaining areas should be retained for development projects.
Assistant government pleader Niranjan Pandit informed the court that it was in the process of declaring the areas as ‘protected forests’ but had held back due to the demands by various government departments that they needed the plots for implementing various infrastructure projects.
The court clearly unhappy with the move, has asked the state counsel to file an affidavit on three aspects—the exact mangrove areas that have not been declared as protected forests, how much of the remaining area is required for public infrastructure projects and what percentage of the mangrove plots were being earmarked for private projects (apartments and golf courses). Earlier, advocate Navroz Seervai launched a blistering attack on the state’s tardy implementation of the high court orders to declare mangrove areas as protected forests.
