NatConnect Foundation

“We will now lodge a complaint with the High Court appointed mangrove protection and conservation committee against the under reporting of the landfill on mangroves at Dhutum,” said B N Kumar, director of NatConnect Foundation

NAVI MUMBAI: With the official inspection confirming killing of a large tract of mangroves at Dhutum in Uran for JNPT Parking lot, the revenue department will file an FIR for violation of the Environment Act.

Revenue circle officer Sandeep Bhandare who inspected the area confirmed the destruction in about two acres. “We submitted our report to the Tehsildar who will deal with it now and have an FIR filed,” he said.

Reacting to the development, environmentalists said it’s a case of “too little, too late”. The inspection report in a gross underestimation of the actual destruction of mangroves over more than six acres, said Nandakumar Pawar, head of Shri Ekvira Aai Pratishtan.

Environmentalists have earlier complained to the government against the destruction at Dhutum opposite IOT, off NH348, in Uran. The Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority (MCZMA) has asked Raigad District Collector. MCZMA then asked Raigad Collector to check the violations, said B N Kumar, director of NatConnect Foundation

“We will now lodge a complaint with the High Court appointed mangrove protection and conservation committee against the under reporting of the landfill on mangroves at Dhutum,” said B N Kumar, director of NatConnect Foundation

Coming as it did, this is part of a series of violations by JNPT. Elsewhere in Ulwe too there has been landfill on mangroves, Pawar said.

Meanwhile, MCZMA has also confirmed to NatConnect Foundation in an RTI response that JNPT SEZ has no coastal zone clearance even as environmentalists have raised deep concerns over massive burial of mangroves in the port’s special project area for over two years.