Airoli MLA steps in to save 200 trees in Navi Mumbai

Trees on the plot, OS-7, at Pawane in Navi Mumbai

Responding to green groups' efforts to save about 200 trees from being axed by the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) at Pawane in Navi Mumbai, Airoli MLA Ganesh Naik has asked the state agency not to cut a single tree.

The MIDC had earlier planned to allot plots for project-affected people (PAP) in the green patch developed by a private petrochemical company, which had leased out the plot, OS-7.

The lush green lung would have been destroyed had the MIDC gone ahead with its plan to cease the lease and divide the area into small plots under the guise of compensating PAPs, NGO NatConnect Foundation claimed. B N Kumar, director of NatConnect, called on Naik last week to discuss a series of environmental issues plaguing the city and requested him to raise them in the state legislature's monsoon session.

According to the NGO, Naik confirmed to them that he has asked MIDC to spare the plot OS-7 and look for an alternative place for the PAPs.

Kumar said, "When I met him, Naik Sir told me, ‘Don't worry, I will physically come to the spot if anyone tries even to touch the trees'."

NatConnect had earlier sent an email to Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, who in turn asked Dr Harshdeep Kamble, principal secretary in the industries department, and Aseem Gupta, principal secretary in the urban development department, to look into the matter. Kumar said nobody had an objection whatsoever to settling the PAPs, but the greenery should not be destroyed.

The spot

The one-acre plot was originally a swampy area before a neighbouring private company dealing with hydrocarbons volunteered to develop it into a green spot over 20 years ago. MIDC had agreed and leased it out to maintain the place, documents obtained by NatConnect show.

The company carried out plantations and now about 200 trees, including several fully grown palm trees and flower-bearing plants, stand there, Kumar said. Trees in urban areas filter the air and remove harmful particles. They also help to filter and regulate water, preventing flooding and protecting watersheds, according to a press communique from the United Nations.

Kumar said the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC), which has been conducting a tree census, has recorded the trees at OS-7, and it is also the responsibility of the civic body to save the greenery. NatConnect is also taking up the issue with the Navi Mumbai civic body.

Space crunch

As it is, the per capita open space is woefully low in the so-called planned city of Navi Mumbai, NatConnect pointed out. Against the Union government's stipulation of about 10,000 sq m per thousand population under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation, in the area under the NMMC, this figure is 3,000 sq m (3 ha per 1,000 people).

"All open areas and places earmarked for ‘maidans' are being gobbled up by the state-government-owned city planner CIDCO. With just about five per cent of land remaining to be developed and a projected population rise of 3,77,000 by 2038, Navi Mumbai must focus on open spaces and green lungs and not expand concrete jungles," Kumar argued. "MIDC and CIDCO should work out a proper plan for settling PAPs. Shockingly, PAPs are yet to be rehabilitated six decades after the creation of the industrial belt and the planned city," another environmentalist rued.

An MIDC official said, "We have informed the company [person] concerned very clearly that no tree on the plot should be cut, trimmed or transplanted while doing development activities. If they do so, action will be taken."

1 acre
Size of plot