Mangroves, salt pans or sunken housing?

Destroy saltpans, invite floods: Greens

Sukhada Tatke | TNN

Concerted efforts to open up the city’s saltpan lands for “affordable housing” have environmentalists deeply concerned. A huge section of natural resources faces the risk of destruction, they warn. Early last year, an expert panel formed by the Mumbai Transformation Support Unit (MTSU) recommended unlocking certain No Development Zones (NDZ) and saltpan lands to make room for affordable housing.

Judiciary and public shocked to see mangroves destroyed to make salt pans, to later convert to real estate in Dahisar

Below is the infamous Jayesh Shah of Ravi Group of builders, whose greed led to this deadly plan to destroy 450 acres of mangroves in Dahisar. Timely action by New Link Road Forum and BEAG averted the destruction, for now.

    The city has nearly 13 pockets of saltpan lands, collectively measuring approximately 5,000 acres. There has been debate since 2001 on how these lands should be utilized. The Centre formed a cabinet subcommittee on the issue. A decision is yet to be taken.
    Over several decades, Mumbai has lost several acres of saltpans to developers and, in the 1950s, two plots — about 120 acres of Bharpur Salt Works near Vikhroli and 150 acres of the Mahudwala saltpans — were used for residential purposes.
    Environmentalists and some housing activists say the current move is aimed at land-grabbing in the name of housing the poor. “Saltpans comprise the few last bits of this overcrowded city’s free spaces. If we get rid of the saltpans, the city would lose an important buffer against erosion and flooding,” says Simpreet Singh of the National Alliance of People’s Movements. “Moreover, if the state government is really interested in promoting affordable housing, there are schemes like the Rajiv Avas Yojana that can be implemented with more seriousness.”
    Bittu Sahgal, editor, Sanctuary Asia, says that after obliterating wetlands, coasts, gardens, mills and virtually every other open space, “free the saltpans” has become the battle cry of builders and politicians who wish to turn public spaces into private cash. Sahgal says that sea levels are rising, cyclonic wind speeds are approaching 200-plus kmph and constructions on reclaimed land along the coast are going to be the first victims of climate change. “Instead of protecting citizens from such imminent threats, they want to fill saltpan lands, which are really giant bathtubs that hold millions of tons of tidal waters,” says Sahgal.
    The tidal water that 5,000 acres of land would hold would flood not only Navi Mumbai and Sewri, but virtually all adjacent low-lying areas, he says. “Add to this the folly of constructing the new airport on mangrove-mudflat land, and the water displacement is magnified many times over. This combination of ignorance, avarice and arrogance is precisely what caused the Mithi River disaster. Do our city planners really want to be remembered by history as the myopic ones who learn nothing from history?” asked Sahgal.