Kharghar residents claim development body is breaching a wetland it promised not to touch
Residents from Kharghar will soon be knocking the judiciary's door to not just save but also revive a huge fresh water pond being reclaimed by CIDCO despite a rap by the Wetland Grievance Redressal Committee, appointed by the Bombay High Court.
Local activist Nareshchandra Singh who is part of the Abhivyakti Group said that the water body, located between Sectors 18 and 19, is now being levelled as part of a residential project being developed by CIDCO.
"This pond has never dried in the past 15 years and is home to several migratory birds. It also provided various other ecological services. However, CIDCO has rampantly begun dumping debris to reclaim the pond. This is after we wrote to all the authourities including the Wetland Grievance Redressal Committee," he said, adding that the pond, originally five hectare in area, has been reduced to a third of its size.
Stalin D, project director of Vanashakti NGo and one of the members of the redressal committee and visited the site on Thursday, saw the debris being dumped in the pond.
"Since citizens had registered a complaint, it was taken up during a meeting in April and CIDCO was instructed to stop it. But we were told that the dumping has been going on over the last several weeks. The issue was taken up again in the meeting on Thursday and I even visited the site to see the situation for myself. I saw the reclaimation work is going on in full swing," he said, adding that he asked the officials to stop the work or face action.
Local residents claimed that they have no faith in CIDCO, as they have been continuing the reclamation activity. "We will approach the court as the last resort to save this pond, and we have all the required satellite images and documents showing the whole five hectare pond," said Singh.
The CIDCO officials disputed the claim that the pond is a wetland.
Milind Panditrao, Divisional Forest Officer, state mangrove cell, and member secretary of the committee, said that it has been decided to carry out a joint visit where CIDCO staff, the complainants as well as staff from the mangrove cell will visit the site.
"It has to be verified if it is wetland or not. Our staff will take GPS coordinates and further investigations will be carried out. CIDCO officials will cordinate the joint visit," he said.
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