As environmentalists and local residents have expressed grave concerns over possible landslides at Parsik Hill, the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) has agreed to look into the issues.
Nature, wildlife, scenic beauty, spirituality, religion, environment and adventure - everything is in Parsik Hill, a precious jewel spread over the Thane-Navi Mumbai belt of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR).
Post the Irshalwadi landslide in Khalapur in Raigad district, NatConnect Foundation and Parsik Greens drew the attention of NMMC officials to the threats to Parsik Hill residents and buildings as the eastern slope, facing CIDCO headquarters, has been dug up under the guise of beautification by a private builder.
This aspect has been confirmed in an NMMC inspection that was presented to the State Human Rights Commission which took a suo motu notice of the media reports on the threat to the hill.
Climate is changing and it is going to get worse by the year and the authorities must be alert while issuing building permissions, NatConnect director B N Kumar said in a statement.
An IIT report confirmed the soil weakness on the Eastern slope of Parsik Hill.
Quickly responding, NMMC commissioner Rajesh Narvekar informed NatConnect that the civic body would examine all aspects of the environment. The civic body already had the endangered slopes examined on Friday.
City engineer Sanjay Desai too said the hill condition is being studied.
Parsik Greens convenor Vishnu Joshi said the retention wall on top of the hill has been broken and there are encroachments by some unscrupulous elements. While the eastern slope has been weakened, a major hospital cuts into the bottom of the Western slope, he pointed out.
There are 100 buildings on top of the hill and 100 more will come up with the clearance of aviation restrictions, Parsik Hill Residents Association president Jayant Thakur said.
With the aviation clearances, height restrictions will be eased and even multi-storeyed buildings will come up on the hill adding to the weight of buildings on the hill, Kumar said and called for a thorough Environment Impact Assessment before CIDCO leases out more plots and NMMC issues commencement or occupancy certificates.