Government promises to act on dying Charkop lake

Efforts from residents and environmentalists to protect and restore Charkop lake may have finally borne fruit with the Mumbai suburban collector promising action against culprits.

Shekhar Channe, the collector of western suburbs, under whose administration lies the Charkop lake, said on Sunday, “We are looking into the matter now and action will be taken against the responsible people, irrespective of the ownership of the land.”

However, residents said they would not be assured by the collector’s words until he acts on them. “There are discrepancies within the revenue department regarding the records of the land. They need to resolve that before acting against the illegal landfills and encroachments,” said Reji Abraham, president of United Association for Social, Education and Public Welfare, an NGO that works for social progress in the Charkop region.

The Charkop lake in Kandivali, a recognised wetland of about 4.5 acres, has all but vanished due to illegal land filling and encroachment. Dumping of debris into the lake also goes against a Union government’s notification that prohibits the reclamation of recognised wetlands and also against a 2013 Bombay high court order directing the state government to ban construction on wetlands.

The 60-year-old lake plays an important ecological and hydrological role in the region and the residents of Charkop have already experienced the adverse effects of the lake’s reclamation. Residents and local NGOs have been fighting since 2004 to save the lake. In December, a letter was also written to chief minister Devendra Fadnavis to launch an inquiry into the illegal reclamation of the lake and to seek its revival.

“Only 20 per cent of the huge water body survives now. Charkop lake is a water body but the government refuses to accept that. According to their revenue records, the lake is a ‘deep pit’. In 1972 the land was leased out to the Kumbhar Kala Industrial Society (potters industrial society) for a 30-year-period as they make use of the soil from the ‘wetland’ to create pots though there was no such work evident on the site till date,” Mr Abraham said.

He further added, “The lease was revised in 2004 to a similar sounding Kumbhar Kala Residential Society at nominal rates and now there are plans of a residential building to be built on the lake land. All this has been happening despite the water body being recognised as a wetland by the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS).”

Interestingly, in 2007, the then director of BNHS Asad R. Rahmani had written to the then Mumbai suburban collector Vishwas Patil, informing him about the efforts to reclaim the lake and sought help to conserve it. When contacted, Mr Patil said he had undertaken measures to protect the lake but its eventual destruction could not be prevented.

Amit Vohra, a businessman who has been residing in Charkop since 1997, recounted the water body as being a large lake and replete with rich bird life. “It was a pretty big lake and we used to spot exotic birds there but now it has been completely been destroyed by landfills and encroachment. The area looks like there never was a lake here,” said Mr Vohra.

Commenting on the matter, environmentalist and director of NGO Vanshakti Stalin Dayanand said, “Apart from the Centre’s notification, there is also a high court order to protect these wetlands but the current scenario clearly shows that there is no

fear of law among officials.” Speaking about a wetland being registered a s a ‘deep pit’ in revenue records, he said, “This is a clear indication of how the revenue department colludes with land sharks to destroy water bodies.”