Mangroves to be chopped for proposed cycle track at Palm Beach Road

Mumbai: Despite the dust barely settling on the issue of the Powai cycling track around Powai Lake, the Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority (MCZMA) has cleared a fresh controversial proposal: a cycling track along Palm Beach Road in Navi Mumbai. To be executed by the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC), the project envisages the cutting of 21 mangroves for the track. The proposal was cleared in the MCZMA meeting held on September 12.

NMMC officials informed the MCZMA that as per the site visit conducted by the mangrove cell on February 22, 2021, the 21 mangroves were spread over an acre at Sonkhar village. The NMMC has approached the Bombay high court for permission to cut the mangroves. The proposal has already received clearance from the state forest department.

A senior officer of the NMMC told HT that the cycling track would be 7.99 km long. “It will start from the Sion-Panvel highway underpass to Uran Junction near the NMMC head office at Kille gaothan,” he said. “The turning point will be at Moraj Circle. The track will have pause points, seating areas, gazebos, sculptures, water fountains, lighting, irrigation, horticulture, signage and toilets.”

The minutes of the MCZMA meeting, which were published recently, say that for every mangrove that is chopped, the NMMC will have to replant five mangroves. MCZMA has also said that the debris generated during the project activity should not be dumped in any area falling under the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) rules and should be processed scientifically at a designated place. But despite this ostensible concern for environmental norms, environmental activists are up in arms.

Amrita Bhattacharjee, who has been opposing the cycle track around Powai Lake and near Vihar Lake, said, “We need cycle tracks in Mumbai but not at the cost of greenery or mangroves. Tracks should be built along existing roads. In Mumbai, the hills of Sanjay Gandhi National Park have been cut to construct a cycle track at the Powai and Vihar areas, and it’s shocking that mangroves will be cut for constructing a cycle track in Navi Mumbai.”

Environmental activist D Stalin of NGO Vanashakti echoed Bhattarcharjee’s sentiments. “There is ample space to create these kind of facilities without touching wetlands,” he said. “They could have built an elevated track bypassing the mangroves. The development agencies must stop looking at mangroves as disposable commodities.”

Harish Pandey, an activist who works against the destruction of mangroves pointed out that the Navi Mumbai mangroves were the habitat of many varieties of birds, including flamingos. “Why are government agencies indulging in this mindless destruction of the environment?” he asked.