Mid-Day: Mumbai: Monday, June 12, 2017.
A city-based
NGO named Vanshakti has been fighting to Save Aarey milk colony and is also
associated with the Aarey Conservation Group has written a letter to Chief
Minister Devendra Fadnavis requesting him to initiate a judicial inquiry into
hundreds of crores of land scam allegedly planned by Forest Department
officials so that Aarey milk colony remains away from Sanjay Gandhi National
Park (SGNP).
It should be
noted that the NGO Vanshakti along with Aarey Conservation Group (ACG) had
moved to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) against Metro car shed project in
Aarey Colony stating that the project will have negative impact on the
biodiversity of the Aarey. The matter at present is being heard in NGT.
The NGO
claims that after filling several RTI applications, it discovered that Aarey
colony has been a part of SGNP after it was transferred in 1969 to the National
Park, Forest Division.
It has also
questioned the land status, “We filed our petition in the National Green
Tribunal, Pune in the year 2015 and since then, we have been relentlessly
seeking data and explanations as to why such a land with 5 lac trees and
innumerable wildlife in it was denied the status of a forest land. The letter
goes on to say that the Forest Department has always shied away and refrained
from admitting the truth of Aarey being part of the national park and has
chosen to remain silent on the issue. “Forest Department is aggressively
claiming hundreds of acres of land infested with slums as being part of the
national park, which continuing to wash its hands off Aarey which is infested
with 5 lakh trees, 76 types of birds, 7 leopards, endemic scorpions, reptiles
belonging to the schedule –I of the Wildlife Protection Act, among other.
The NGO claims
that the main motive for excluding Aarey from SGNP is due to huge real estate
value of the land parcel , “This is nothing but a huge land scam which at a
conservative estimate will amass crores in terms of real estate value assuming
only half of Aarey is taken up for real estate." In the letter, the NGO
appeals to CM Devendra Fadnavis to intervene and take action, “As the caretaker
of the states natural resources and as the most powerful official in the state,
it is very much within your power to prevent this fraud and destruction of the
forests of Mumbai. It would be a travesty of justice, a monumental scam an
unquantifiable environmentally damaging concept if Aarey is left
unprotected."
The Letter
ends by demanding action against officers involved in the scam and, “We also
request you to initiate or give directions to connect Aarey colony to the
Sanjay Gandhi National Park and for the larger public good by preventing
non-forest activities in it." The management plan for Sanjay Gandhi
National Park that was prepared few years back and was submitted to the
government also mentions the name of Aarey milk colony.
The Protected
Forests paragraph on page number 32 of the Management plan reads, " The
protected forest belong to eight villages and these forests presently form
parts of compartment number 1136 and 101. The revenue lands transferred from
Aarey Milk Colony form unclassed forests." The environmentalists have
alleged that the Thane Forest Department (Territorial) in its affidavit that
was submitted to National Green Tribunal have deliberately not mentioned the
above point from the SGNP Management plan.
The 21.1
paragraph about Roads on page number 71 of the Management plan reads " The
network of routes inside the Division mainly consists of the roads approaching
from the three entrances to the park name, namely the main entrance Gate, the
aarey gate or Elephant Gate and the Bhandup Complex Gate. In addition there are
few forest roads which are used for the management of this area. In 1969 the
Greater Mumbai milk scheme transferred the 18 kilometre long cement concrete
road from Aarey to Borivali to the state Forest Department including the
approach routes to kanheri caves and the Gandhi Memorial.There are nearly 75
culverts at various places on these roads at present the length of the various
types of the road within the park is around 72.6 km." states the paragraph
from the management plan .