Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Thursday sought a reply from the State government on a plea demanding the documents showing transfer of the entire Aarey Colony and its neighbourhood areas to Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP).
A Division Bench of Justices B.R. Gavai and M.S. Karnik was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL), filed by Vanashakti and its director and environment activist Stalin D, seeking these documents which have allegedly gone missing from government records.
The judge gave two weeks time to the State for filing a reply, failing which they would stay all ongoing felling of trees around the national park for several development projects.
The NGO wants the court to direct the forest department to notify 103.68 sq km of SGNP as a protected area — as stated in the SGNP Management Plan under the Wildlife Protection Act — and accordingly demarcate it and build a boundary wall.
As per the PIL, in the absence of fencing there was confusion over the area of the SGNP and the neighbouring Aarey colony. As per records, the petition said, of the total 20.76 sq km of Aarey, 5.75 sq km were demarcated as recreation area, and the remaining 15.01 sq km became part of the SGNP. “However, there are no records/details of the recreation area, and resultantly, no details of the remaining area.”
The petitioners also told the court that earlier this year, Vanashakti had released some documents to show that in 2012 the State had demarcated the said 20.76 sq km of as ‘un-classed forests’ and part of the national park. This meant that the land in Aarey, a forest land, could not be diverted for projects such as the Metro. However, in its reply to another RTI query filed by the petitioners, the state claimed it had lost all records in a fire at the state secretariat building.
Therefore, the petitioners said, it was imperative that the court intervene and direct the State to demarcate the national park area to prevent any further destruction of the green cover. (With PTI inputs)