Marine activists claim it is from reclamation sites where Coastal Road project was on
Marine enthusiasts and environmentalists were shocked to witness huge quantities of rubble including stones and pebbles, that have been washed ashore along the 500 metre stretch of Girgaum Chowpatty beach on Saturday.
The activists have claimed that the rubble on the beach are from the sites where BMC was earlier carrying out reclamation for the Coastal Road project.
Pradeep Patade, Founder of Marine Life of Mumbai (MLOM)- a group that has been documenting the marine biodiversity along Mumbai's coast informed that it was around 12.30 pm while walking on the Girgaon Chowpatty beach he was surprised to see the rubble consisting of stones approximately six to seven inches and even smaller than that.
“I have never seen such rubble being washed ashore on this sandy beach ever. The entire beach stretch from Walkeshwar end to Girgaum Chowpatty's main entrance had around one feet thick debris over the sand along with garbage too,” he said adding that this could possibly be the material dumped for reclamation for the coastal road work.
According to activists BMC was carrying out dumping of several huge boulders for reclamation and along with they had also dumped a lot of rubble at few sites for some work earlier. Earlier too during this month as well as in July, the reclamation work at several sites were even reported to have been washed during the high tide.
“Given the size, shape and composition of the rubble, it's very evident that it's not natural but coming from the reclamation sites. Instead of being in denial, BMC and other authourities involved should first take cognizance of the issue and even carry out study to ascertain facts,” said Architect Shweta Wagh who is a petitioner and has been researching on the social as well as environmental impacts of the coastal road since 2014.
“If this goes on, our beaches would soon become unwalkable and again would bring to light the fact that how there was no study carried out on the impacts of the coastal road,” Wagh further added.
Dr Vinay Deshmukh, former principal scientist at the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) said that though he has not seen the beach and the rubble, the photographs suggested that most probably this was from the coastal road sites.
“The waves churn everything and it's a fact that the sea will throw back everything that we have thrown into at some point just like we keep getting garbage and oil,” he said.
However senior BMC official said that they will have to investigate. “We cannot confirm that this is from coastal road sites as of now,” said the official.
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