Team Blitz India
MUMBAI: Environmentalists have raised alarm over Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) plan to axe close to 200 trees in the Thane-Belapur industrial belt.
The MIDC plan is to hand over an area measuring over an acre to project affected persons (PAPs) for rehabilitation. In a letter to the Maharashtra Government, environmentalists have expressed concern over the plan and requested to save open space and greenery in the highlypolluted belt situated in the Trans Thane Creek (TTC) area.
The trees are to be axed at plot number OS-7 in Pawane village, which is said to be the only green lung in the entire area with fully grown trees.
Environmentalists have said in the letter that they had learnt that a private company has painstakingly developed this plot with plenty of landfill over the past 20 years. Today, the green space has tall palms and other trees and flower bearing plants. The Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) officials visit the area whenever they conduct tree census, which means that this green patch is under the NMMC account as well.
Stating that they are not against rehabilitating the PAPs, which is much delayed, the environmentalists said that it is shocking that after more than six decades of industrial and residential development in the area, the authorities are still talking about compensating the PAPs.
The MIDC and other local authorities such as the City and Industrial Development Corporation (Cidco) have been requested to find alternative spaces rather than destroying the city’s green lungs. “For nature lovers every tree counts. The authorities must recognise the fact that it takes years for trees to grow. It really hurts to see the greenery being uprooted mercilessly,” the letter says.
