Kalyan passenger body to protect Parsik Hill from slums

After taking up the cause of saving mangroves in Kalwa, the Kalwa Parsik Rail Pravasi Sanghatna has now taken up the issue of encroachment on forest land on Parsik Hill. They have used Google maps to show the increasing number of shanties that have enveloped the hill and is harming the environment.

Parsik Hill in Thane is several years old. The movie Awara, starring Raj Kapoor and Nargis was shot here. "It was a hill station like Mahabaleshwar but since 2008 it has been encroached upon," Siddhesh Desai, president, Kalwa-Parsik Rail Pravasi Sanghatna (KPRPS) said.

"It is a forest land but from 2008 to 2010 it was completely enveloped by shanties," he said.

The KPRPS aims to free Parsik Hill of the slums. "As no action has been taken against these shanties, it is now one of the biggest slums just like Dharavi," he said.

The KPRPS have written to the forest ministry about the encroachment on the forest land a month back. "We took Google maps and showed how the hill has been encroached and they need to do something about it. But nothing has happened yet."

He said that these slums which include Bhaskarnagar, Gholainagar, Waghobanagar, and so on have now turned into settlements. "They get water, electricity supply and the power thefts happening in the region can be linked to them as well. But they are a huge vote bank so no one will touch them," he said.

Though the KPRPS is a railway passenger redressal body, the alarming threat to environment in Kalwa has made them take up the issue. "The environment is in danger in Kalwa be it mangroves or the Parsik hill. But no one is paying any heed to them. So we decided to raise the issue with the authorities," he said.