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Navi Mumbai NGOs urge CM Thackeray to take action to save Mangroves

The NGO administration said that despite the state government asking district collectors, CIDCO and JNPT to transfer mangroves under their control to the forest department, things are not moving in the right direction.

Navi Mumbai NGOs urge CM Thackeray to take action to save Mangroves
(Representational Image)
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On Tuesday, December 22, Navi Mumbai’s NatConnect Foundation and Shri Ekvira Aai Pratishthan wrote to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and the Bombay High Court-appointed Mangrove Protection and Conservation Committee, seeking immediate action to protect Mumbai region's biodiversity.

Mumbai’s two environmental groups have alleged that large tracts of mangroves are being systematically destroyed across Mumbai and nearby areas due to slow progress in handing over the coastal vegetation to the state's forest department.

The NGO administration said that despite the state government asking district collectors, CIDCO and JNPT to transfer mangroves under their control to the forest department, things are not moving in the right direction.

Reportedly, CIDCO is going slow citing collection of data about mangroves under its jurisdiction. In Uran, the development body says it has handed over such land to either Navi Mumbai SEZ or JNPT while gross violation of CRZ norms was observed in Uttan-Bhayandar where 25 acres of mangroves have been cleared, alleged NGO administration.

Moreover, the HC-appointed Committee has also directed that the maintenance of mangroves be done by the forest department.

Earlier, the NGO NatConnect had taken up causes of environment and nature to the CM and cabinet minister for tourism and environment, Aaditya Thackeray, and wrote to them taking strong objection to planting mangroves uprooted near Vashi creek bridge to another location. The green body had urged the state government to plant the mangroves close to the project site.

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