Navi Mumbai: In order to protect and preserve the biodiversity of Navi Mumbai amid rapid urbanisation and development projects, environmentalists on Friday appealed to Maharashtra’s new chief minister Eknath Shinde to drop plans to resume quarrying in Parsik Hills, spread across Thane and Navi Mumbai.
Protesting against City and Industrial Development Corporation’s (CIDCO), environmentalists fear that quarrying would be resumed on the hill as Shinde, as urban development minister, a little over a year ago, suggested to CIDCO to look at the possibility of renewing licences, subject to environment and forest clearances as mandated by the law.
On June 23, 2020, Shinde, who was also Thane’s guardian minister, publicly announced the decision to renew quarrying after meeting with a delegation of local quarry operators, and assured them that the mines, which were closed down five years ago, will be re-started to help settle the Navi Mumbai project-affected people (PAP) and float 40,000 jobs.
Since 1972, CIDCO had been allotting quarries to PAP in lieu of the land acquired for the development of Navi Mumbai.
Quarrying has since been halted on two occasions — once in the mid-90s at the intervention of late Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray, and again in 2016 after the forest department ascertained that mining has been done in significantly more than the permissible land.
“The Parsik Hill range has already been battered beyond recognition by indiscriminate and limitless quarrying, and it is high time that the damaged hills are restored by landfill and replantation,” NatConnect Foundation director, B N Kumar, said in his mail to the CM.
“Every stakeholder, including the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC), opposed the quarrying in the interest of the city and the people’s health. The latest Environment Status Report (ESR) of NMMC shows that the air quality is fairly good now after the halting of quarrying, Kumar said.
Local activist Nareshchandra Singh said quarrying has now extended to the Kharghar area as well, where non-stop work has been going on despite the district administration’s claim that the activity has been stopped. “The air quality in the node is bad due to stone dust in the air,”
Another activist, Jyoti Nadkarni added, “The hills, a natural contiguous extension of Parsik Hills, is also home to rich biodiversity which is at stake.”
Refusing to comment on the allegations, CIDCO officials said that it is committed to preserving the environment and all measures are taken as per the specified norms.