Mulund residents file PIL against salt pans for Dharavi rehabilitation plan

Advocate Sagar Devre, the petitioner, outside the Bombay High Court, on Friday. Pic/Aditi Haralkar

Mulund residents on Monday filed a public interest litigation (PIL) opposing the state government's decision to allow the construction of homes for families affected by the Dharavi Redevelopment Project on 255.9 acres of land across in the eastern suburbs.

Advocate Sagar Devre, who filed the petition, stated that the decision could destroy the environment.

The petitioner has challenged government resolutions dated August 7, 2024 and September 30, 2024 that paved the way for the transferring of 255.9 acres of salt pan land from the Centre to the state for constructing buildings to house citizens impacted by the Dharavi project.

A colony (circled) being constructed for project-affected people near salt pan land in Mulund East. Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi

On August 28, the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry decided to hand over the land to the Maharashtra government and on September 30, the state cabinet decided to use salt pan land for affordable housing, project-affected people and rental housing.

Devre stated in his petition that the move would result in the destruction of the fragile coastal ecosystem which has already been substantially damaged due to the Back Bay, Bandra Kurla Complex, Versova, Trombay, Mankhurd, Vashi, Mahul, Sewri and Mulund reclamations.

"We have challenged the memorandum issued on August 28 by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, government of India, is the root cause of the entire ecosystem-damaging chain," said Devre.

"As per the Supreme Court's order, it is mandatory to preserve and protect the said wetland. Salt pan lands are located between the high and low tide lines and are a highly sensitive part of the ecosystem that includes mangroves, wetlands and estuaries. They also act as a natural buffer for the coastline. Salt pan lands are closely knitted with thick mangroves and act as a natural buffer line that protects the island city from heavy rains, floods during monsoon and tsunami. The government of India decided to transfer the 255.9 acres of salt pan land to the state government. The latter will use this for the construction of housing colonies. This is bound to destroy the entire coastal ecosystem beyond reparation and create an ecological imbalance," the petition read.

According to Devre, salt pan land parcels fall under the Coastal Regulation Zone 1-B category, where such activities are not allowed.

Although salt pan lands have been excluded from the definition of wetland in the Wetland (Conservation and Management Rules, 2017, according to an October 2017 Supreme Court order, wetlands as defined as per the Wetland Rules, 2010, remain protected, Devre stated. The Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry is a party in the PIL as it had decided to hand over the salt pan land to the state government.

According to a media note published after the state cabinet meeting of August 30, the state government had decided to open 120.5, 76.9 and 58.5 acres of salt pan land in Kanjurmarg, Bhandup and Mulund respectively for the rehabilitation of families affected by the Dharavi redevelopment project. According to RTI documents which received by the Devre recently, the Dharavi Redevelopment Authority needs 521 acres of land across the city for this purpose. According to the RTI documents, the authority had demanded land belonging to the MMRDA, the collector and the BMC as well as the Kurla dairy plot and saltpan land.

58.5 acres
Area of salt pan land in Mulund opened for rehabilitation by the government