Thane: Polluting industries invade protected SGNP zone, alleges activist

After mangroves and wetlands in Thane faced threats from alleged dumping by the land mafia, the Eco Sensitive Zone (ESZ) of Sanjay Gandhi National Park is now at risk due to significant forest degradation. Large areas of forest have reportedly been cleared, and polluting industries such as cement mixing plants and casting yards have been established and are rapidly expanding.

NGO Vanashakti has written to the Thane Collector, the Principal Secretaries of the Environment and Forest Departments, the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board, the Chief Conservator of Forests for SGNP, the Deputy Conservator of Forests (Thane Territorial), and the Principal Secretary of the Urban Development Department to address this issue. The NGO has alleged that polluting activities leading to forest degradation are ongoing inside the ESZ of SGNP at Gaimukh and Chena on the Thane side.

"Large areas of forests have been cleared and polluting industries like Cement Mixing plants/Casting Yards, etc have been set up and are rapidly expanding. We wonder how these activities have been permitted inside the national park. These activities are mainly happening at Chena and Owale villages and Gaimukh. The lands in question might be privately owned but the state should have endeavoured to protect these lands if they could not acquire and notify it as forests, keeping in tune with the orders of the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India." the letter read. It also alleged that let alone notifying or protecting these areas, the state machinery has actively aided the degradation inside the ESZs.

"Setting up and operating polluting industries, deforestation, change of land use, etc are prohibited activities inside a notified Ecologically Sensitive Zone. What is worse is that these polluting activities are in close proximity or even inside a tribal hamlet, as seen in the Google Earth images. Does the state have the power to play with human life and health just because the people involved are poor tribals?" states the letter. Additionally, the high court, in its order passed in PIL 131 of 2014, has ordered that satellite imagery should be used to monitor forests.

Compared satellite images of Gaimukh in 2018 and 2021

"Why has the forest department, or any of the other agencies not detected this change of land use and degradation using satellite imagery analysis if there was no personnel available to physically monitor the situation on the ground? Please see the attached Google Earth time series satellite imagery to understand the dire situation on the ground. We call upon you to take action to immediately stop the polluting activities and to restore the areas to their forested condition. The abandoned quarries on the roadside on the same stretch also need to be restored and afforested. Kindly take action at the earliest," said Environmentalist Stalin D.

An environmentalist who visited the location recently said, "At Chena around four to five stone crushing units have come up and what is shocking is the fact that all this is happening in the ECZ of SGNP. The ECZ monitoring committee seems to be least bothered."

Talking about the casting yard near Gaimukh, the environmentalist said, "The casting yard at Gaimukh is the old one but if we compare the satellite images, a lot of things seem to have changed on the ground." Stalin D said, "The casting yard might be old but if you see the 2016 ESZ notification of SGNP, the casting yard activity is not allowed and by now the authorities should have removed it."