Maharashtra: Greens oppose CIDCO's plan to build 106-hectare township on Kharghar Hill

Strongly pleading for “outright rejection” of the Maharashtra government-owned city maker CIDCO’s plan to develop a 106-hectare township on the Kharghar Hill Plateau at the satellite township of Navi Mumbai, environmentalists have said that the project will lead to destruction of nature and biodiversity in an area equivalent to ten Azad Maidans of Mumbai.

“This is apart from the cascading effect that the residential-cum-commercial project will have on the hill stretch where a Nature Park has been planned,” NatConnect Foundation said in its complaint to the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Control (MOEFCC) from whom CIDCO has sought environment clearance.

Researchers found 295 insect species, 15 other invertebrates, 12 fishes, 9 amphibians, 28 reptiles, 179 birds and 12 mammals’ species, Kumar said in a press statement.

The NGO raised serious objections to CIDCO’s lack of transparency and concern for the environment. “CIDCO and environment are antonyms,” NatConnect director B N Kumar said.

CIDCO said in its proposal that developing Kharghar Hill Plateau as an Integrated Eco-Tourist Hub will cater to the public at large and further facilitate exploration of Nature Park. Eco-Tourist Hub will keep the essence of the place intact and increase the awareness about Nature Park and its biodiversity.

“We fail to understand as to how development of a concrete jungle in the close proximity of a Nature Park and rich biodiversity will help Nature,” Kumar said. The concrete jungle, the huge population and related pollution from the human activities and vehicles will only destroy the Nature Park. This destruction will again prompt the planners to go for further development in the hills, he pointed out.

A Kharghar-based activist Jyoti Nadkarni said the node, just many parts of Navi Mumbai, are already reeling under tremendous stress for want of infrastructure such as drinking water, sewerage, roads, parking spaces and so on and this kind of township will further strain the available infrastructure.

As it is, many parts of Kharghar get drinking water by tankers even after nearly three decades of the township’s creation, Jyoti said. “Our society Hyde Park alone spend Rs 21 lakhs over the last six months on tanker water and the members were all terribly upset,” she said.

Nareshchandra Singh of Kharghar Hill and Wetland Forum pointed out that most importantly, the planned township will adversely impact the biodiversity of the area and the hills’ capacity of holding water.