Launch biodiversity park on hills in govt’s possession

Once again, the proposed biodiversity park (BDP) in the development plan (DP) of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has run into controversy. Civic and environmental activists are against any construction in the zone, citing it the green belt that will act as a carbon sink for the city’s pollution. There is another section of people, which cannot give up the rights to their lands in the BDP, who would want to reap handsome rewards for their investments.

Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan has suggested via the media to limit all construction to 4% of the size of individual land holdings.

Opponents of the BDP say that eventually, slums and encroachments would eat into the reserved area and that the estimated cost of acquiring the private lands — varying from Rs970 crore (Greens’ estimate) to Rs3,000 crore (government estimate) — is beyond the means of the state government, the PMC, and any special-purpose vehicle established to raise funds and related resources for the city’s “lungs”. Both arguments are not substantive: if there’s political will, these hurdles can be overcome.

Danger lurks in the future: What if the 4% ceiling is violated or raised in the future, after the heat and dust of the controversy has subsided? Who is to ensure that illegal structures are demolished and the perpetrators are punished, rather than being regularised or merely slapped with a fine? What then is the bigger threat to greening of the hills: encroachment by slums or gross violations of laws by landholders? Polemics aside, it is time we initiated work on at least those hills that are already in the state government’s possession: nearly half of the 4,000-acre proposed BDP reservation.