Table Land — where horses were allowed during summers — was that the wheels of these carts would affect the dormant vegetation lying under the soil in the summers.
With Bombay High Court rejecting the application moved to allow horse-carts on Panchgani's Table Land, environmentalists have not only heaved a sigh of relief but are also planning to ensure that a conservation master plan is quickly implemented to protect the plateau, which is one of the most pristine and ecologically sensitive areas of Maharashtra.
Hema Ramani, project executive, Bombay Environmental Action Group (BEAG) who was also the petitioner in the case, said that while most of the tourists visit the Table Land in summers, not many are aware that during monsoon the same place is a host to different species of blooming flowers and is almost like Kaas plateau in Satara. In fact, one of the major reasons of not allowing horse carts on the 80 acres of the eco-sensitive Table Land — where horses were allowed during summers — was that the wheels of these carts would affect the dormant vegetation lying under the soil in the summers. This will affect the tablelands ecology during the monsoon.
"Now that the order is clear, we plan to meet the CEO of Panchgani Hill Station Municipal Council and discuss the implementation of the conservation plan. One of the most important aspects of it is to lay down a track in the 80 acres of the Table Land so that the horses are only allowed to move in these tracks to further reduce any kind of ecological damage," said Ramani adding that this was one of the suggestions put forth by plateau expert Dr Aparna Watve who conducted a one year study on the Table Land to study the effects that the horses and horse carts will have on the Panchgani Table Land and even gave a detailed presentation in the High court in 2013 showing why this was such an important and eco-sensitive area that had to be protected.
In fact, the entire Table Land was divided into two parts — the northern part measuring 80 acres, which was extremely bio rich and the second was the 20 acre land where all the tourism activities including horse carts were allowed. However, the horse owners were reluctant to move to this area citing tourists demand and were pursuing the case to get even the horse carts allowed in the 80 acres land.
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