Navi Mumbai: Maharashtra Probes CIDCO for Dumping Airport Debris on Protected Lotus Lake

 In a significant development, the Maharashtra Government has sought detailed reports from the Thane district collector and CIDCO over attempts to bury Lotus Lake — a verified three-hectare wetland located in Sector-27, Nerul — official information obtained under the Right to Information (RTI) Act has revealed. The move follows a directive from the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) to the State Environment Department, urging action on a complaint filed by the NatConnect Foundation. The complaint accuses CIDCO of dumping debris and soil — generated during the construction of the Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) — into the wetland.

On June 11, NatConnect Director B N Kumar filed the complaint through the Prime Minister’s Office Public Grievance (PMOPG) portal, alleging CIDCO was “hell-bent” on burying the ecologically sensitive lake. In response, Pankaj Verma, Scientist-F at the MoEFCC's Wetland Division, confirmed on the PMOPG site that the issue has been “Taken up.” Verma also emailed Maharashtra Environment Director Abhay Madhukar Pimparkar, instructing him to act on the matter. Following up, Kumar filed an RTI seeking details on the action taken after the MoEFCC’s directive. In its reply, the Environment Department informed Kumar that it had formally requested reports from both the Thane district collector and CIDCO via separate letters dated June 13.

“This clearly shows the series of serious official correspondence pertaining to Lotus Lake and not a mere routine government response,” Kumar stated. He added that NatConnect and other concerned citizens would continue to follow up “until Lotus Lake is saved,” pointing out that the lake’s protected status is officially documented and verified via RTI responses. Kumar further explained that Lotus Lake is one of the 564 wetlands inspected and recorded by the National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management (NCSCM) under a state government mandate, as part of the long-pending process for official wetland notification.

In his filing, Kumar also reminded the MoEFCC of its own directive to all States and Union Territories to safeguard wetlands as per a Supreme Court order. This order references the National Wetland Inventory and Assessment (NWIA) conducted by the Space Applications Centre (SAC). Additionally, the Bombay High Court has extended protection to Lotus Lake in two separate Public Interest Litigations (PILs) filed by advocate Pradeep Patole. In one case, the court directed CIDCO to clear the lake of debris. In the other, it closed proceedings on encroachments after the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) gave an undertaking to remove all illegal structures. Despite these court directives and official protections, CIDCO has reportedly awarded a contract to a private company, TIPL — owned by an influential politician — to lift construction debris from the NMIA site and dump it onto the wetland.