CM orders inquiry into alleged CRZ violation at CIDCO’s rugby ground

The plot CIDCO has allotted for the rugby ground

The CIDCO is again under scanner over a plot in Navi Mumbai allotted to a rugby ground. Environmentalists, in a letter to the chief minister and the high court-appointed wetland committee, said the land falls under the coastal regulation zone. CM Eknath Shinde has taken note of the complaint and has asked the urban development department to look into it.

NGO NatConnect Foundation Director B N Kumar, who complained to the government, said, "We are thankful to CM Eknath Shinde for his prompt response. We hope a detailed investigation will be conducted into this habitual burial of wetlands by CIDCO under the guise of development. We received an email from Shinde marking it to Bhushan Gagrani, principal secretary of urban development-1, in-charge of the state's municipal corporations."

A 2010 satellite image of the area

Local environmentalists have been flagging several such instances of CIDCO burying wetlands. In this instance, they claimed that the state government-owned city planner has allegedly buried more than 10 acres of intertidal waterbody at Sector 25, Kharghar in Navi Mumbai. Of this land, a 3-acre plot has been allotted for a rugby ground.

‘Plot falls under CRZ'

The activists said that intertidal areas are designated as CRZ1B by the CRZ notification of 1991 issued by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. Kumar said that the satellite maps and ground study of the area show that it is an intertidal wetland with water around the reclaimed plot with the creek at a stone's throw. NGO NatConnect Foundation in the letter stated, "We have absolutely no issue with CIDCO promoting sports, which is a must, but it should not play with the environment by burying a CRZ1B area."

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A satellite image of the same area in 2014 shows the reclamation

Kharghar Wetlands and Hills Group Convenor Nareshchandra Singh said that the reclaimed area falls under CRZ as per the Maharashtra Remote Sensing Application Centre map. "It is unfortunate that CIDCO has ignored all these and allotted the plot for a rugby ground," Singh said. Expressing concerns about the remaining 7 acres of reclaimed land, he added "The least CIDCO could do now is to save the land in the high tide line."

Past allegations

Kumar said, "This is nothing but continuation of CIDCO's anti-environment policy of allotting wetlands and mangrove zones for development, beginning with Uran where NMSEZ and JNPT have been allotted lands." CIDCO has recently floated for sale a 25,000-sq m CRZ dominated plot at Nerul and allotted a similar area for Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation's (NMMC) super speciality hospital. Earlier it allotted a mangrove zone for Tirupati Balaji Temple, Kumar recalled.

"It is unfortunate that when the world is worried over the rising sea levels and warning of coastal erosion, CIDCO is going for increased construction into the sea," he said, adding, "With such large-scale violations, one wonders what the authorities who are supposed to protect and conserve wetlands are doing." Kharghar-based activist Jyoti Nadkarni said the reclamation appeared to be a systematic and planned affair with the dumping of debris on wetland. She also drew attention to the manmade bunds all around the creek.

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Area (in acres) allotted for the rugby ground