In a brazen violation of environmental norms, the bottom of the residential part of the landslide-prone Parsik Hill at Belapur in Navi Mumbai is being dug up with heavy machinery, green groups said.
“What is even shocking is that this hill cutting is right across the headquarters of City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) of Maharashtra,” NatConnect Foundation said. “There are over a hundred buildings, including the Mayor’s bungalow, standing up on the hill and the Municipal and Police commissioners houses in the bottom, yet no one seems to care for the dangers to the hill”, NatConnect director B N Kumar said in his complaint to Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
A study by IIT-Bombay last year showed that the slopes of the hill are loose and landslide prone. A landslide from the hill had badly damaged the water distribution control room run by the civic body two years ago. A local resident Amit Gupta posted on his X platform account a video of the hill being cut.
“Relentless cutting of Parsik Hill in Sector 30/31 CBD Belapur by school project may cause landslides and danger to the residents of Sec 26 on the top of the hill,” Gupta said.
Former Municipal Commissioner Vijay Nahata, Shiv Sena (Shinde) leader, reposted the message, tagging CIDCO, Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation and the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB).
Activist Jyoti Nadkarni of Kharghar Hill and Wetlands expressed her surprise that a school is indulging in such a destruction. She said, “Is this how we are going to teach our children about the environment?”
Kumar appealed to Nahata, who also headed the State Environmental Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA), to take up the issue with Mantralaya.
NatConnect expressed its aghast that CIDCO does not appear to learn any lessons from landslides in Kerala’s Wayanad and Irshalwadi in Raigad district, and allows construction in the bottom of the Parsik Hill.
The Maharashtra State Human Rights Commission (MSHRC) had last year had taken a suo motu notice of media reports on the cutting of the Parsik Hill slope, endangering the buildings on top. After the Commission severely pulled up CIDCO, the planner admitted that the private builder to whom the hill part was leased had violated the lease conditions. CIDCO had to terminate the agreement.
Yet, NatConnect said, CIDCO now allotted a plot for a school at the bottom of the hill.
Nadkarni lamented that CIDCO does not care for the environmental protection be it the Parsik Hill, Belapur of Kharghar Hills. It is time for public awareness about the imminent dangers such violations, she said and asked as to how long and how many times can a common man run to the courts for environmental justice.
