The Union Forest Protection Division (FPD) has asked the state forest department to probe into the environmentalists’ concerns over plans to start about a hundred ready-mix concrete (RMC) plants in erstwhile stone quarry sites at Parsik Hill in Navi Mumbai. NatConnect Foundation has earlier on Wednesday requested the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MOEFCC and the State Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to reject these proposals and stop violations in forest areas. The city of Navi Mumbai is expanding and the erstwhile MIDC industrial areas, along the hill, are also being converted into massive residential and commercial complexes with huge towers and IT units which will soon result in thousands of people living there, NatConnect director B N Kumar said.
The Air Quality Index (AQI) in the city is already bad and reaches far beyond the World Health Organisation (WHO) norms. The ready-mix cement plants are bound to create a quarry-like situation in the middle of a rapidly growing urban area. This should not be even the last thing that one should think, Kumar said in his missives to the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MOEFCC) as well as Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. The FPD asked the principal chief conservator of forests(PCCF) to “get the matter examined and take action as per the provisions of extant Acts, rules & regulations”. The action taken report in this regard may please be communicated to the applicant and this Ministry at the earliest, the email from MOEFCC said. Expressing happiness at the prompt response, Kumar expressed the hope that the forest area would be protected.
The activist recalled that stone quarries have been halted on over 260 hectares on the hill following a National Green Tribunal (NGT) in September 2017 making environmental clearance mandatory for the activity. Attempts to resume the blasting and stone crushers were also nixed by the State Environmental Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) then headed by former senior IAS officer Vijay Nahata, following a hue and cry by environmentalists.
NatConnect said the move to start RMCs is “a highly disturbing development”.This will give rise to some 100 ready-mix concrete plants with a potential of creating air and noise pollution in the middle of the City of the 21st Century, Kumar said. The Forest Department had in October 2006 agreed for diversion of 138.07 hectares in Parsik Hill for 20 years for minor minerals (stones). CIDCO in turn leased out the hill slopes for quarries as part of its scheme to resettle the Navi Mumbai project-hit people (PAP). The quarrying at Parsik Hills had crossed the allotted limit by blasting 264 hectares – equivalent to the size of more than 26 Azad Maidans – said Kumar quoting a Forest Department report presented to the Thane District Environment Impact Assessment Authority (DEIAA) in February 2018.
Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) had vehemently opposed the quarries and the then Commissioner Dr N Ramaswami made a public statement to that effect. NMMC, in fact, had filed an affidavit at the NGT to this effect. Contacted by NatConnect, Vijay Nahata, a former NMMC Commissioner and now a Shiv Sena (Shinde) leader, said he would strongly oppose the RMC idea.
Addressing the PAP issue, NatConnect suggested a three-pronged approach to resettle the project-hit. The RMCs could be permitted away from Parsik Hill, in a non-populated area; they could be allotted plots under 12.5% scheme, and the government could even encourage cooperatives for quarries or ready-mix plants away from residential areas. These cooperatives could function on the lines of the milk societies across the state and regulate the stone chip supply, based on demand of the construction projects. The MOEFCC by a notification dated August 14, 2018 stipulated that proposals for diversion of more than 100 hectares for non-forest use need clearance from the Ministry’s EAC (Expert Appraisal Committee).The activist recalled that Shiv Sena chief late Bal Thackeray had also asked then CM Manohar Joshi in late 1990s to shut the Parsik Hill quarries to check air pollution in Navi Mumbai.