Mumbai:Court orders and citizens’ efforts notwithstanding, the destruction of mangroves continues on the sly in several parts of the city. Vast tracts of mangroves—nearly 300 acres—have been systematically destroyed at the Ulhas river, in the Diva-Mumbra belt, over the last three years.
    The stretch had around 700 acres of verdant mangroves but half of it has been destroyed and slum colonies sprung up. Besides, concrete debris has been dumped to pave way for new residential buildings. The 90-km river starts from Karjat and flows through Thane and Raigad, and during its final course splits into two tributaries—the westward one going to Vasai and the south going to the Thane creek and Arabian sea.
 Remote-sensing satellite images of the area near Thane creek, with TOI, clearly show what was mangroves in 2004 is a huge slum settlement today.
    The Bombay high court had directed the government to map mangroves and declared mangrove stretches as private forest land. But the state hasn’t yet mapped mangroves beyond Mumbai and the suburbs and large tracts in Thane and Raigad are unprotected.
    Senior forest officials admitted the mangroves were burned down and slums proliferated as the state is yet to map this area as forest territory. “The mapping has to be done by the land record department,” an official said.
    “Last month we did a survey in that area and have written to the land record department to conduct the mapping soon,” Satyajit Gujjar, deputy conservator of forests, Thane, told TOI. But environmentalists said the HC order made all four agencies—the Konkan commissioner, the forest department, district collector, and local police—responsible for protecting the mangroves. The order adds even if there has not been a notification on some mangrove, no non-forest activity should allowed. “What we are witnessing in Mumbra-Diva belt is a multi-crore land scam,” Debi Goenka, founder trustee of Conservation Action Trust said.
    The mangroves are home to 200 species of birds and are a breeding ground for a variety of fishes.
Gift a green greeting
Mumbai: Why don’t you gift a tree to someone for their birthday? Grow-trees.com, a social business initiative, has started a facility where individuals can plant trees for the price of a conventional greeting card and a green certificate with a personal message will be e-mailed to the recipient. It will help people willing to pay Rs 50 to plant trees on public land, in forest and parks, and thus increase the green cover across the country.
    “We have planted 33,000 trees across various national parks like Kanha and Kumbhalgarh Wildlife Sanctuary,’’ says Pradeep Shah, the man behind the initiative. “We have got many enquries from companies who want to do this as part of their corporate social responsbilty. One bank decided to send the e-greetings to employees who used minimum printouts,” he says. —Viju B | TNN