Team Blitz India
LOCATED close to a burgeoning metropolis and wedged between the Arabian Sea and the Sahyadri Ranges of Western Ghats, Raigad is faced with the difficult option of choosing between development and environmental protection. In the Konkan region of Maharashtra, this region is expected to witness massive infrastructure development in the coming years as it gradually merges with the already-congested Mumbai Metropolitan Region.
As rapid urbanisation becomes inevitable, Raigad might become the epicentre of an environmental crisis, feel activists. It is blessed with rich biodiversity, but is reeling under environmental issues. Elected representatives hardly bothered about the allround destruction under the guise of infrastructure development. Several big-ticket infrastructure projects have either been completed or are in various stages of construction in the region dotted with water bodies, forests, and mangroves.
A key project among them is the Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link, popularly called MTHL or Atal Setu, which connects Mumbai to Nhava Sheva across the Mumbai harbour. Besides, the Navi Mumbai International Airport is likely to be operational in a few months. The Navi Mumbai Airport Influence Notified Area (Naina) is expected to boost development in the Raigad district and the larger MMR.
Development projects have cost the local inhabitants dearly in the past as well. The fishing community families displaced from the Sheva village for the development of Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority are still languishing in transit camps.
Mangroves and mudflats which are the breeding ground for a whole variety of aquaculture are being consistently destroyed for extension of port terminals with no official intervention. The vanishing wetlands have had a direct impact on biodiversity as the number of migratory flamingos has fallen drastically.
