Sanjay Gandhi National Park faces encroachment

MUMBAI: The Sanjay Gandhi National Park is still facing problems of encroachment despite the Mumbai High Court asking authorities to clear the park of all inhabitation more than a decade ago.
     
The park, which is home to a large number of wild animals, has been encroached by over 8000 families, according to Bombay Environmental Action Group (BEAG).
    
The NGO had filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in 1995 against the encroachments.
    
In its order, the High Court had asked the authorities to remove the encroachments within 18 months.
    
But even after a decade, encroachments remain.
    
BEAG member Debi Goenka said at one point of time there were more than 60,000 encroachments in the SGNP. But after the court's order, most of the encroachers were shifted elsewhere.
    
The biggest problem in removing the encroachment is the patronage they receive from politicians as they constitute a good vote bank. One politician from Borivili has been openly encouraging them and opposing any attempt to remove them, Goenka alleged.
 
The park area is spread over 103 sq km and constitutes a wide range of biodiversity and habitat conditions ranging from mangroves to evergreen forest of Western Ghats.
  
The rich and diverse forest is home to more than 1,000 species of plants, 40 species of mammals, 250 species of birds, 38 species of reptiles, amphibians, besides large varieties of fish, insects and other life forms.
 
According to BEAG, these encroachments have led to massive deforestation within the national park and pose threat to the green oasis inside the park.
 
According to Goenka, they have also received reports of quarrying operations going on in the forest land.
 
To pinpoint the exact number of encroachments, the SGNP had taken the help of Space Application Centre (SAC) which has mapped forest encroachments through satellite remote sensing of the whole national park. This map was used as evidence in the High court.