Expert panel to study Mithi tidal movement

The Bombay high court on Thursday appointed a three-member expert committee to study the tidal movement of the Mithi river after construction of a 300-metre long wall on the Vakola Nalla. The committee, which has been told to submit a report in four week, will also look at the effects the wall construction has on the surrounding mangroves.

The court was hearing a PIL filed by Jagdish Gandhi, a city based businessman, in 2007 after the wall was constructed. Gandhi had pointed out that the wall would divert the water flow that would harm the mangroves, which were several thousand years old.

A division bench of Justice FI Rebello and Justice JH Bhatia named Avinash Kubal, deputy director of Maharashtra Nature’s park society; Sameer Mehta, South-Asia director of International Rivers and Goldin Quadros, state director, Maharashtra/India World Wide Fund for Nature on the committee.