Citizens cry foul while govt dozes

With a citizen participation wave riding the country against corruption, it is now the turn of regular Joes to save the environment. Forty five year-old Manoj Paralkar, a driver, has unearthed what could be a systematic plan to destroy 165 acres of lush mangroves in Ganpat Patil Nagar, Dahisar West.

Advertising professional and Sunday MiDDay reader Ankeet Dave
clicked this picture yesterday at Shilphata Road. It clearly shows a part
of the hill scooped by quarriers

"I have spent my childhood here watching the Dahisar creek disappear before me. I have reason to believe that over two lakh people have been illegally given homes on the creek, by systematically destroying the mangroves, reducing it to a fraction of its size. The land mafia builds shanties here overnight and sells them to migrant families for upto Rs 1 lakh each."

Copies of an RTI enquiry that sought answers from civic authorities and the local police station suggest that dubious documents have allegedly been given to the BMC to prove ownership, and justify encroachments (Sunday Mid Day has a copy).

Driver Manoj Paralkar points to the illegal shanties that have come up
on mangrove land in Dahisar West thanks to the land mafia

"Closer inspection of the documents pertaining to ownership revealed that the same were issued on a Sunday, a non-working day, by the Collector's office, thus casting a doubt on their validity," claims Paralkar. When contacted, Satish Narkar, Assistant Commissioner (R North), admitted to the presence of encroachments, saying, all efforts were being made to demolish them. "I am currently not in a position to give details but I am aware that the problem has existed since 1995."

Another concerned Mumbaikar and Sunday MiDDay reader, Ankeet Dave, an advertising professional and photographer, captured the destruction of hills around Shilphata Road to Ghansoli, on the Thane Belapur belt.
"I take this route often, and have witnessed a mass destruction of the beautiful hills due to stone quarries. I may not understand the nitty-gritty of the legalities involved in quarrying but if what's happening is illegal, the government must act," he said.