Mumbai: Is it now too late to save Charkop lake?

The alleged connivance of the land mafia and senior government officials has reduced a 50yearold wetland of 45 acres at Charkop in Kandivli West to 1000 sq ft as encroachers have opened garages and godowns to store soft drinks as well as restaurants eateries tea and paanbidi stalls Recently civic officials razed a few encroachments but encroachers still fearlessly run their businesses under the alleged protection of senior babusThe lake as it was in 2005 five years before it was allegedly illegally filled by the land mafiaLocals have also alleged that the land mafia dumped debris and earth to fill the lake ldquoThis has not only reduced the holding capacity of the lake but also clogged the nullah causing major inconvenience during monsoon as the roads get flooded The lake area has been converted into a concrete junglerdquo said a resident adding ldquoCivic and revenue officials have destroyed the lake with their vested interests This is why government officials are hesitant to begin cracking down on the encroachers The partial demolitions will make no differencerdquoActivistrsquos allegationsSocial activist Reji Abraham said ldquoCharkop has a huge number of groundfloor clusters But the antienvironmentalists in connivance with the revenue and BMC officials have reduced the 45acre wetland to the bare minimum Here the land mafia is earning lakhs of rupees per month and they are using the same money to bribe officials and take stay orders on demolition in the courtrdquoCivic officials demolish encroachments facilitated by the land mafia on October 30ldquoIn 1972 the thencollector had given this wetland to a pottersrsquo society for 30 years to use its clay to make pots The lease expired in 2002 but it was extended by officials The pottersrsquo society hardly made use of this wetland and the land mafia started to eat into it reducing its sizerdquo he addedIn light of this nearly a dozen housing societies ran a signature campaign in 2006 to protect the wetland under the banner lsquoChakop Talao Bachao Abhiyanrsquo Several residents as well as staffers of a nationalised bank undersigned the documents highlighting how the wetland plays an important ecological and hydrological role ldquoIn 2010 the land mafia filled 25000 sq ft of the wetlandrdquo alleged AbrahamCourt orderConsidering the importance of wetlands in October 2013 Bombay High Court said that on areas that have been identified as wetland areas in the Wetland Atlas prepared by the Central government there shall be no reclamation of land and ldquono construction of whatsoever nature is permitted on the said lands without leave of this courtrdquoGarbage on illegally reclaimed landldquoConsidering the need to protect the wetlands in the state and to ensure compliance with the interim orders passed by this court a grievance redressal mechanism will have to be created We accordingly direct the state government to constitute a committee headed by the divisional commissioner of the Konkan Division to monitor the implementation of the interim orders passed by this court in the Konkanrdquo reads the Bombay HC orderldquoThe state government shall appoint senior revenue officers working under the divisional commissioner Konkan Division as well as senior police officers having jurisdiction over various areas of districts in the Konkan to be part of the committee It will be open for the state government to include any expert as a member of the committee Even a representative of the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board shall be a part of the committee All planning authorities within the meaning of the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning MRTP Act 1966 in the said districts must be given a representation of the committeerdquo reads the court order ldquohellip but neither the revenue nor the civic officials obeyed this order as the certified land mafia continued to encroach upon the wetlandrdquo Abraham saidldquoProtection and regeneration of this wetland after the removal of encroachers is of paramount importance in the larger interest of Charkop residents more so in the light of prevalent largescale environmental degradation and pollution All senior state government authorities including the civic chief and the Collector Mumbai Suburban must actrdquo the activist addedOrganisationrsquos pleaIn 2021 activists associated with River March an organisation that works towards rejuvenating the cityrsquos rivers wrote a letter to the chief minister and environment minister as well as local public representatives requesting them to give the lake legal protection In March last year Yuva Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray posted about beautifying the lakersquos premises on XResidents speakAmol Bamne a resident of the Jeevan Veena Society said ldquoEarlier there was a big lake where Ganpati visarjans and boating activities would take place The wetland has disappeared because of encroachers and we want it backrdquoTina Singh residentSunil Ramchandra Gole a resident of the Jeevan Sandeep Society said ldquoThe land was given to a particular group but they didnt develop it We ran a signature campaign but the government didnt take it seriously This is the only wetland in our area and it should be preservedTina Singh a resident of Surmesh building said ldquoIt was a very beautiful lake I shifted to Charkop in 2002 and used to look at the lovely water body from my window Now its condition is terrible People litter and many encroachments have taken place We want the lake to be restoredrdquoAnother Surmesh building resident Amit Mane said ldquoIn 1995 our building developed and in 1998 we used to visit this lake and do Ganpati visarjans there It was open land We cant even go near the water body now The government should take this matter seriouslyrdquoOfficials speakThe incharge of the factory and building department RSouth ward Abhayraje Jagtap said ldquoA week ago we carried out demolition in that area in the presence of revenue officials We provided them with the manpower and required The revenue officials directed us to demolish the encroachments and we simply compliedrdquoRajendra Bhosale collector Mumbai Suburban district said ldquoI will tell the additional collector encroachment to take action Also I will tell civic officials to register an FIR under the MRTP and BMC Acts All water bodies are handed over to the BMC because the health aspects are covered by the civic bodies All the water bodies need to be restoredrdquoldquoI have not received any complaint yet You can write to me and in the same complaint letter I will direct them to take actionrdquo he said The Bombay Natural History Society BNHS has been doing studies on the in and around Mumbai Charkop and other wetlands play an important role in influencing bird dispersal in the region as well as in protecting the mainland from floods ldquoIf we lose these wetlands it will have serious implications during the monsoon season BNHS has done the correspondence with the authorities We must protect these wetlands at any costrdquo said Kishor Rithe director BNHS2006Year citizens began signature drive