Bombay High Court on Thursday issued a notice to Maharashtra government to declare and notify 103 kilometres of stretch around Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) as the protected area. The high court has asked the state government to submit a reply on this matter within two weeks.
This move comes after environmentalist and Vanshakti NGO activist Stalin Dayanand filed a petition in the court demanding to fence the SGNP area because of the increasing encroachment. The petition was heard by a bench including Justice BR Gavai and Justice MS Karnik.
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According to Public Interest Litigation (PIL), despite the Bombay High Court ruling of the year 1997 to estimate and fence the SGNP area for eliminating encroachment nothing has been done. Petitioners further said that as per the information received through Right to Information (RTI) the state government has declared only 86 km of SGNP stretch under protected area.
However, in response to another RTI filed by the petitioners, the state claimed that all the records regarding the same were destroyed due to the fire incident at State Secretariat building.