Illegal slaughter near runway flourishes unchecked despite DGCA caution to Navi Mumbai Airport operator

Navi Mumbai: With the Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) set to go operational in less than three months, environmentalists have expressed grave concern over the authorities ignoring the directive of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to check illegal slaughter at Ulwe, close to the runway.

On a complaint by environment watchdog NatConnect Foundation, DGCA director Amit Gupta informed on May 2, 2025, that the aerodrome operator has been advised to act against the slaughter that can attract birds.

“But there has been no action against the illegal slaughter of animals and the open sale of mutton and chicken,” NatConnect director B N Kumar said.

In the wake of a recent vulture strike on an Indigo flight near Ranchi, Kumar has written to the DGCA expressing concern over the inaction against the illegal slaughter occurring dangerously within a three-kilometre radius of the NMIA.

Kumar had originally filed a complaint with the DGCA on February 24 through the Prime Minister’s public grievance portal against unchecked slaughtering of goats and chicken at Ulwe, barely three kilometres from the airport runway as the crow flies.

“This is a flagrant violation of aircraft norms set by the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), which stipulate that there shall be no slaughter of animals within a 10-kilometre radius of any airport,” Kumar pointed out in his complaint.

In fact, this DGCA norm is a prominent part of the Government Resolution (GR) issued by the Maharashtra government while appointing the Aerodrome Environment Management Committee (AEMC) for the NMIA.

The City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra Ltd (CIDCO), which heads the AEMC, administers the Ulwe node. Despite repeated complaints, the action from CIDCO so far has been less than cosmetic, as some shops were demolished and they sprang back up as if with vengeance, said Santosh Kate, president of Ulwe city NCP (Ajit Pawar).

NatConnect has also called for constituting the AEMC under the chairmanship of an environmental expert or a retired judge.

Recently, the Aeronautical Information Service (AIS), managed by the Airports Authority of India (AAI), issued a NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) list pertaining to the lack of operational readiness of the Navi Mumbai International Airport.

However, the issue pertaining to the illegal slaughter within the three-kilometre radius is missing from the NOTAM list, which mentioned the absence of landing and take-off routes and the presence of 225 obstacles, including 86 buildings, 79 hilltops, 23 power transmission towers, 12 mobile towers, and eight floodlight poles.

Kumar has, therefore, raised the slaughter issue with the General Manager of AIS, who responded that the matter has been referred to the “concerned authorities at NMIAL.”

“But the so-called concerned authorities remained unconcerned over such an important issue,” the environment watchdog said, and raised a fresh complaint with the DGCA, with a copy to the Maharashtra Chief Minister.

Meanwhile, a member of the Bombay High Court-appointed Animal Welfare Act Monitoring Committee has stepped in and requested the police to act.

NatConnect Foundation has drawn the attention of the High Court-mandated committee’s honorary member Soorraj Saha to the fact that the illegal slaughter and open sale of mutton continues despite the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) advisory to the airport authorities to have it stopped.

In response, Saha pointed out to the Navi Mumbai police commissioner that these shops are proliferating in blatant violation of the provisions of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, the Municipal Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, and the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006.

“I observed that the raw meat waste, which is not disposed of properly, attracts many birds for feeding near flying zones and might pose a serious threat to the aircraft at the Navi Mumbai airport,” he said, concurring with NatConnect director Kumar’s complaint to the DGCA.