Government revenue officials have filed criminal cases against unidentified officials of the Navi Mumbai Special Economic Zone (NMSEZ) for destroying mangroves in Uran, following a series of complaints from several environmentalists.
Three separate complaints have been registered with the Uran police for Environment Act violations at Pagote and Bhendkhal, and the illegal transportation of soil for the landfill at Panje wetland.
All three fall under the 5,300-acre NMSEZ, in which CIDCO has a 26% stake, said B.N. Kumar, director, NatConnect Foundation, an environmental NGO.
The revenue officials, in their complaints, have alleged that unidentified NMSEZ officials are suspected to have damaged the mangroves. The complaint was filed under Sections 15 and 19 of the Environment Act, which deal with offences by companies and cognisable offences respectively.
NatConnect Foundation and another NGO, Shri Ekvira Aai Pratishtan (SEAP), while appreciating the efforts taken to bring the mangrove killers to book, have called for a State Criminal Investigation Department (CID) probe into the case. “We have sent a formal letter to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray with photographic evidence of the damage done and copies of the recent official inspection reports, which confirm the environmental destruction, and asked for a probe by the CID,” Mr. Kumar said.
“This is a welcome development but much more needs to be done to check the menace of environmental destruction in Uran under the guise of development,” said Nandakumar Pawar, head, SEAP. According to him, the details mentioned in the FIRs show only the tip of the iceberg. “The lost mangroves and the Bhelkhand wetland must be restored by quickly removing the debris, in accordance with the recent high court-appointed committee’s orders,” Mr. Pawar said.
While revenue officer Machindra Kashinath Mohite filed an FIR in the Pagote case, stating that mangroves on at least three acres of an eight-acre plot had been killed, in Bhendkhal, the village accountant (talathi) Hashuram Aambo Wagh said that mangroves over 150 acres had been destroyed.
In Panje village, accountant Shama Ashok Pawar filed an FIR against dumper driver Dasharath Gurunath Rathod of Char Phata village for carrying about 1.8 tonnes of soil without a valid transport or royalty permit for it. He has been booked under Section 379 (theft) of the Indian Penal Code.
“We are yet to verify the role of NMSEZ in the case. The FIR was filed by revenue officers after some environmentalists complained,” senior police inspector Jagdish Kulkarni from Uran police station said.
