Bombay High Court Bans Land Reclamation in Maharashtra

The Mumbai High Court (HC) has completely banned any kind of reclamation and development on wetlands in Maharashtra. This wetland may include any land adjacent to water bodies such as the mangroves, coastline marshes and swamps. The HC also called for stringent action against anyone who violated this order.

HC calls for total ban

The Bombay High Court in its order recently, observed that there was a systematic destruction of the wetlands in Maharashtra and increasing illegal constructions on these lands. The court said that the state had neither done anything to keep this destruction in check nor had it taken any action against illegal construction on wetlands. The court also said that there was no permanent machinery in the state to monitor any violations. The complete ban on reclaiming wetlands came after the court received a slew of complaints against authorities who had not taken any action against encroachers.

The Bombay HC directed the state government not to give any permissions for reclaiming wetlands and constructing any buildings on the wetlands shown on the Centre’s wetland map. Along with that, it directed the relevant authorities designated under the EPA (Environment Protection Act) to take stringent actions against anyone who violated the order. Some of the areas with wetlands include Dahisar, Malwani, Vasai, Esselworld, Kanakia Nagar in Mira Road, Oshiwara, Kasheli in Thane and Palm Beach Road in Navi Mumbai.

HC asks for report on wetlands

Besides giving a verdict of a total ban on reclamation of wetland in Maharashtra, the HC asked the relevant authorities to submit a report on the actions taken against encroachers of wetlands, within four weeks. The high court will decide on restoring damaged wetlands once it receives the reports. The chief conservator of forests had recently submitted reports to the court showing large scale destruction along the Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway, Mira-Bhayander and Vasai Creek. This destruction was in direct violation of an earlier court order. Following this, the HC ordered the authorities to submit the ‘action-taken report’.

The panel of judges directed the state government to set up a machinery to monitor the violations of court orders and bans. The court explained that the authorities should not only take punitive actions against violators, but also take actions for restorations.