New land off Mumbai coast gets ‘Natural Areas’ tag

The area of 14.96 square kilometres (sq km) that has bobbed out of the sea on the eastern coast of Mumbai, on account of silting has now been added to Natural Area, even though the BMC had initially demarcated it as “open space”. While city-based activists were sceptical about the use of this 14.96 sq km as open space, the civic body has undone the possibility of encroachment on this land altogether.

Natural Areas are essentially areas where no construction can take place, and they are to be preserved in its natural form. Meanwhile, an earlier justification by the civic body had further differentiated between public open spaces accessible to people, and open spaces.

While this area has added to the overall landmass of Mumbai, which is now 476.24 sq km instead of the previous 458.28 sq km, activists have yet again criticised the move, claiming that this land is of no use to Mumbaikars in anyway.

Commenting on this, city-based activist Ashok Rawat said, “Natural areas do not even belong to the civic body. They are in the custody of the collectorate. The civic body should clarify if this land will be counted in the per capital footprint of land available to citizens.” However, a civic official working on the DP confirmed that there are a few Natural Areas that fall under BMC’s ownership.

Ramanath Jha, officer on special deputation for the development plan said, “We found this new land when satellite images captured it recently. But since it is natural area, it will not be counted as land available for public use.”

Mr Jha clarified that in case of all natural areas like some portions of the Sanjay Gandhi Natural Park, a portion of the area is thrown open to the public for recreation activities.