Senior citizens and tree lovers residing adjacent to the Palm Beach Road in Navi Mumbai are up in arms against the much coveted ₹11.58Cr cycle track over 7.99km. The residents have raised objections to uproot hundreds of trees along this green corridor for the cycle track.
The Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC), recently, got clearance for the track from the State Environment Department and began the work.
KP Shenoy (70), a resident of Utara Tower, Sector 50 (b), Nerul, said, “The damage the cycle track will cause the environment is not being accounted for. The stretch through which the track is proposed has hundreds of plants planted both by senior citizen association as well as by the corporation, which will be affected. Even the fate of the recently-constructed pet corner is unknown.”
The survival of 100 trees planted over the last 10 years has got the senior citizens deeply affected. “If NMMC had already envisioned the project, then they shouldn’t have allowed residents to undertake tree plantation activity on this stretch. A lot of effort has gone into nurturing the green corridor,” said retired scientist, Dr Santosh Kusare, 71, a resident of Gehlot Majestic, Sector 46, Seawoods.
Kusare said that the residents had stalled the work a few years back too. Multiple letters have been addressed to the commissioner as well as other government agencies to stop the work. In the event of NMMC continuing to dig the area, senior citizen groups said they’d stage major protests.
“Development work shouldn’t be done at the cost of nature. The other side of Palm Beach Road is ideal for the track as it has no green corridor. We will certainly protest if the NMMC fails to listen,” said Ashok Kunde, 67, chairman of the senior citizen’s association of Sector 48, Seawoods.
Sanjay Desai, city engineer, said the work is being done in adherence to all norms and clearances from environmental ministry. “All the required clearances have been acquired. Therefore, it is to be assured that there is no environmental damage. Regarding the concerns of senior citizens, utmost care will be taken to transplant trees that get uprooted as well as the track will be made in such a manner that none of the existing infrastructure will be disturbed,” Desai said.
The NMMC received environmental clearance for the project from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change on November 30, 2021. The conditions laid down include compensatory afforestation, setting up of a nursery of at least 5,000 seedlings of forestry, restricted and supervised felling of trees with approvals from forest department. Post the clearance, NMMC issued a work order for the track on February 4, 2022 and the work is to be completed by August 3, 2023.
From the forest department, permission to remove 23 Mangrove trees is said to have been acquired on June 2, 2022. Also, the engineering department is said to have taken permission from the garden department to remove and transplant 24 trees.