Horse buggies and horses continue to pound the ecologically sensitive northern side of the Panchgani table land, in spite of a Bombay high court order of 2002 that barred them from the area.
The high court passed the order, responding to writ petition 7308/2002, filed by the Bombay Environmental Action Group [Beag]. It complained of ecological damage to the surface of the table land. However, the smaller southern side of the table land was kept open for use by buggies and the horses.
The table land issue has come under the scanner once again, after the revitalised, Centre-appointed high-level monitoring committee [HLMC] invited the horse cart and horse owners’ association for a meeting in Mahabaleshwar on December 18. A recent spot visit to the table land revealed that an estimated 43 horse carts and 80 horses ferried tourists every day on the out-of-bound northern side of the table land.
Anil Vanne, secretary, Panchgani horse cart and horse owners’ association, said: “We want to operate on the northern side of the table land because it is much larger than the southern side and is far more scenic. From there (the northern side) we can show the tourists the other plateaus of Panchgani.”
He added that the horse owners’ association had asked the Panchgani Municipal Council [PMC] to allot them four acres of land on the northern side. The horse owners would mark an eight-metre wide track on the plot, and fence it off. “If we use a fenced, circular track, there will be no damage to the table land,”
Vanne said.
Sudhakar Bagade, president of the horse owners’ association, said, “We have been ferrying tourists on the table land for nearly 40 years. We belong to the backward classes, and this is our only source of livelihood. We should be allowed to do business on the northern side.”
Hema Ramani of the Beag said that her group had filed a contempt petition against the PMC for not implementing the high court order.
Comments