Thane to lose wetlands to development

Mumbai: Thane city is going to lose two major wetlands at Gaimukh, Ghodbu-nder road and Mumbra to a waterfront development project by the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC).

The proposal, which includes a garden and a jogging track among others, plans to fill the wetlands by 15 feet in both the sites. Environmentalists have raised concerns over the reclamation of coastal regulation zone-1 area, which may prove detrimental to the city during the monsoon. Meanwhile, the TMC has stated that the civic body has all the required permissions in place.

Not just these two wetland patches, but the project will also entail reclamation of wetland patches at three other spots at Thane city including Kopri and Salket-Balkum.

Member of Bombay High Court appointed Konkan Wetland Grievance Redressal Committee and environmentalist, Stalin Dayanand recently carried out a site inspection in Mumbra and Gaimukh. “Around 2 kilometers of the coastline in Mumbra is being reclaimed. The entire work is going on inside the high tide line without proper clearances from the MCZMA (Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority),” said Stalin Dayanand. Around 70 acres of wetland in Mumbra is being reclaimed in the process.

Thane - based activist Rohit Joshi has written to the wetland committee seeking to put a stay on the ongoing work immediately. “Hundreds of trucks have already been offloaded onto various wetland sites. Shockingly all this dumping is happening in CRZ I area, which needs to be stopped immediately. Filling the land up to 15 meters may result into flood like situation during Monsoon,” said Mr. Joshi. The Tehsildar office of Thane district has asked the TMC to provide copies of the permissions acquired by the civic body for the project.

However, TMC officials stated that the project is within the permissible limits of the CRZ rules. “The project is under the ‘smart city mission’ under the Central Government. The project will be an open space allowed in CRZ norms and no enclosed structures will be developed. We have already got MCZMA approval for the pilot project at Salket-Balkum. Based on conditions laid for the same, we have submitted proposal for other stretches too,” said a TMC official related to the project who requested anonymity.