Mumbai: Charkop hsg society chairman, secy, booked for stealing mangroves!

The garden that was allegedly set up on government land where mangroves once stood

The Charkop police have booked the chairman and secretary of West View Co-operative Housing Society (CHS) for allegedly destroying mangroves on neighbouring government land spanning more than 5,000 sq ft and converting the plot into a private garden. The society named the ground ‘West View Garden'. The police stated that members of the CHS, which is located in Sector 2, Kandivli West, with the backing of politicians, also placed 15-20 wooden benches and hundreds of earthen pots in the garden.

The Borivli tehsildar's office had registered an FIR at the Charkop police station after social activist Reji Abraham raised a complaint mentioning the alleged involvement of the society's chairman Pooja Singh and secretary Shantaram Karande. On August 15, 2023, at 10 am, West View Garden was inaugurated in the presence of political leaders. Banner gates, 15-20 wooden benches and hundreds of earthen pots with saplings were set up at the spot.

An aerial view of the building and garden. Pic/Nimesh Dave

Two days later, Reji Abraham wrote a letter to the revenue department, the mangrove cell of the Forest Department, the R South ward of the BMC and the Charkop police station. The tehsildar initiated the inquiry and asked the mangrove cell to prepare a panchnama at the spot. On August 21, the mangrove cell carried out the procedure as well as GPS reading of the land and found out that mangroves used to stand on the spot earlier.

On August 29, the tehsildar, Iresh Chappalwar, ordered that a senior inspector of Charkop police station register an FIR and act against the persons who destroyed mangroves. On September 14, the FIR was registered by Vishal Gaikwad, the tehsildar's office circle officer.

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Chappalwar, in his letter to the police, stated, "What a shameful and ironical state of affairs. On Independence Day, vested elements with political patronage and the apparent support of the forest department's mangrove cell brazenly cleared a mangrove patch and violated sections of the Environment Protection Act (15) 1&2 to put up flex gate banners.

Pooja Singh, chairman of West View Housing Society, and Shantaram Karande, secretary

[They were] sponsored by political elements in a visible and clear attempt to usurp government-owned notified mangrove forest area." It further read, "This first illegal step in that direction is yet to be acted upon by enforcement authorities from collector Mumbai suburbs, mangroves cell, BMC R South Ward and Charkop police station (which is 5 minutes away) in clear contempt of the Bombay High Court order vide PIL Number 87/2006 via orders dated October 6, 2005, and final orders dated September 17 (sic)."

Activist speaks

Reji Abraham said, "The chairman and secretary, aided by political leaders, used the modus operandi of the land mafia to convert government land affected by a mangrove buffer zone into an illegal garden."He decried the delay in filing the FIR as well as the "delay tactics by Charkop police station officials and the overlooking of the tehsildar's letter". According to the high court order, no construction can be carried out within 50 metres of mangrove land, he said.

The garden that was allegedly set up after cutting mangroves on government land. Pics/Nimesh Dave

He added, "It remains to be seen how much more time will be taken to complete all the remaining procedures such as creating a proper charge sheet; removing all the illegal flex gates, pots and benches on the plot; replanting destroyed mangroves; putting up proper fences; and ensuring there is regular vigilance to prevent future attempts by anyone else, be it the regular public or the land mafia."

Chairperson defends move

When mid-day contacted Singh, she denied having cut any mangroves and said the area was sanitised and beautified as it had been posing a risk to the health of residents. "We understand that there are mangroves in front of our society but the forest department should take the responsibility to maintain them. Many people used to urinate on the spot and residents used to throw garbage there. It was reeking and responsible for the spread of disease. Two people from our society died during the pandemic due to dengue. We complained to the BMC multiple times to clean up this area but they failed to do it."

Officials failed to act?

She added, "On July 5, we wrote a letter to the Forest Department to maintain the mangrove area. We also sought permission to clean up this area and build a garden area where nobody would throw any garbage. Neither the BMC nor the Forest Department acted on our complaints. We spent lakhs of rupees and cleaned up this area." The CHS wrote the Forest Department again on July 21, according to Singh but did not hear back.

Karande said that as they had received no reply from the authorities by August 3, following which 221 members of the society began "cleaning the spot" and contributed money for the endeavour. "We didn't destroy a single mangrove on this land. We only cleaned up the area and beautified it," he claimed.

MP Gopal Shetty inaugurates the garden on August 15

Singh stated, "We wrote to Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and also to other departments but didn't get any help. Due to the dirtiness, dengue and malaria were spreading in the area. We spent R4,05,790 to develop this area. On August 7, mangrove cell officers visited the spot and prepared a panchnama but they didn't give permission to us to clean this area. Is permission required for cleaning? Where is Swachh Bharat then?"

She added, "The cops booked us wrongly as the BMC and Forest Department are responsible for this incident as they had failed. We are only cleaning our area. We are victims of this dirtiness. Only those who live in this area understand how we had been facing this [cleanliness] issue for 25 years." According to Singh, the CHS received a reply from the department on August 24 - after the garden was inaugurated - denying permission to clean up the site.