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Victory for Vanashakti! Well done Stalin D. and team…

SC upholds razing of wall around Kanjurmarg dump





The Supreme Court has upheld the demolition of the compound wall around the 141-hectare Kanjurmarg dumping ground. The wall was blocking the flow of tidal water to the mangroves on the land.

In November 2013, the union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) had submitted a report to the Bombay high court that the wall was constructed without approval. When the ministry had granted environmental clearance for the dumping ground project in March 2009, there was no mention of a compound wall. “Under CRZ Notification 2011, even for beach resorts–which is a permissible activity in CRZ area–only live fencing and barbed wire fencing with vegetative cover is allowed. The compound wall shall be replaced with live or barbed wire with vegetative cover,” said the MoEF report.

Figure 1 Mangroves, saviours of Mumbai

In January 2014, Bombay high court Chief Justice Mohit Shah, while hearing a PIL, di rected the BMC to carry on its activities at the dumping ground in accordance with the MoEF order of 2013.

When the BMC did not comply , NGO Vanashakti approached the National Green Tribunal (NGT), which confirmed the MoEF order. But the BMC and the contractor challenged the NGT order before the high court. In April this year, a division bench of Justice A K Menon and Justice V M Kanade stayed the NGT order. Vanashakti then filed a special leave petition in the Supreme Court.

On July 25, a three-judge division bench of the apex court overturned HC’s April order and directed the BMC and the contractor to act in compliance with the high court’s January order. Of the 141 hectares of the dumping ground, nearly 80 hectares falls under coastal regulation zone and cannot be used for dumping purposes.
About 25 hectares of these 80 hectares under CRZ have mangroves on them.