Bird-man may soon meet up along Mulund mangrove

Mangrove park proposal gets a boost after Union minister Prakash Javadekar’s visit last week.

The 720-hectare stretch was recently notified as a reserved forest and is under the jurisdiction of the state forest dept.

Pristine mangrove forests along the Kanjurmarg-Bhandup-Nahur-Mulund stretch may soon become accessible to public, with the mangrove cell working on a proposal to create a mangrove park in forests. This comes after Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar and MP Kirit Somaiya visited the plot last week and expressed their desire to proceed with the project.

The roughly 720-hectare stretch has recently been notified as a reserved forest and is under the jurisdiction of the state forest department. “As the mangroves here are notified, any work to create a mangrove park will be carried out by us. We have been asked to come up with a proposal as we have already worked on creating boardwalks through mangroves in Airoli and Palm Beach Road,” said N Vasudevan, chief conservator of forests, mangrove cell.

A mangrove park, once created, will have boardwalks for people to see the mangroves and birds and waders up close.

Following the visit, the ministers met forest secretary Vikas Kharge and discussed the mangrove park plan, and Kharge directed the mangrove cell to prepare a proposal.

“We discussed the park with the CM as well and we all agreed that it would be a good idea,” said Somaiya.

Back in 2002, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) had proposed to create a 1,000-hectare mangrove park in the area, which never took off. Subsequently, the area was declared a reserved forest following a Bombay High Court order.

Although this stretch falls under the jurisdiction of the forest department, the saltpans on the same stretch of mangroves has been a bone of contention between the salt commissioner and the mangrove cell. The salt commissioner’s office had written to the mangrove cell last July asking them to not carry out “any activity that will disturb salt-mining activities”.

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The Centre and state, represented by the Salt Commissionerate under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, were locked in a battle for 33 years over the ownership of fallow salt pan lands.
Somaiya assured that the conflict with the Centre over salt pan lands will be resolved soon.

anjali.lukose@expressindia.com

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