Faulty land use survey gives kolis a raw deal

Mumbai-based NGO Yuva has investigated the faults in the Existing Land Use (ELU) survey of Koliwadas in Mumbai and questioned the biases in the city’s development plan (DP) that is currently being revised.

The study revealed that the coastal villages, including Koliwadas and Gaothans, are the worse off, due to the DP implementation and its biases in the past 20 years in P-North ward.

“We checked the mapping discrepancies of the ELU survey with various Koliwadas and Machchi Maar Kruti Samiti (MMKS) to check the accuracy of the ELU mapping carried out by the BMC, which is bereft of people’s participation and hence contains innumerable errors,” said Yuva’s architect and planner, Aravind Unni. “Numerous jetties, docks, sheds and community halls where nets are repaired, etc, are not mapped. Without these essential infrastructure components being marked, the ELU survey and the coming DP will be failure.”

There are more than 70 errors in the ELU survey mapping in 10 Koliwadas alone. “The errors range from not mapping entire Koliwadas in Malvani and Bhatti Koliwada, Malad (W) to marking Koliwadas as distinct areas and not residential areas,” he said, adding that Chimbai Koliwada is mapped as an informal settlement.

A prominent leader and MMKS member, Rajesh Mangela said, “Coastal areas used for generations by fisherfolk. Despite being the indigenous community of Mumbai, we haven’t been given the opportunity to be a part of the planning process. We want the BMC and the government to invite us to have a say in this plan.”

Mangela has also been a leading activist for kolis.

Although the survey does map fishing-related activities as the primary activity in the Juhu and Worli koliwadas, it misses to accurately map the activities on the ground, thus giving a false picture of the land parcels being vacant or not developed. This has deep socio-economic linkages with Koliwadas and the Koli community.

“The beaches in front of most Koliwadas are used for fishing-related activities for generations and cannot be classified as open space,” the report stated.

Yuva and 15 other NGOs and  Community Based Organisations are currently checking six wards in Mumbai for ELU errors and will come out with the findings next week.

Yuva has recommended that the BMC name Koliwadas urban fishing villages and not just urban villages and demarcate them separate from Gaothans. “To safeguard the distinct identity of Koliwadas, the ELU survey has to be amended to record them as distinct settlements,” it said.