Mumbai: How did Aaditya hand over mangrove land for a temple, asks activists

The proposed land for the temple, which is currently being used as casting site for MTHL. Pic/Nandkumar Pawar

Was former state environment minister Aaditya Thackeray aware that he was handing over eco-sensitive mangrove land in Ulwe to Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) for the construction of a replica of Lord Venkateswara temple," asked green activists. It was their complaint about the alleged violation of Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) norms that forced Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his deputy Devendra Fadnavis to cancel the bhoomi puja at the proposed site at the last moment.

TTD has now sent applications to the authorities concerned to get the necessary permissions to construct a temple on the 10-acre land in Gavhan village in Ulwe.

The abrupt cancellation of the event came just a day after a Mumbai-based public relations firm issued a media invite, on behalf of a textile industrialist, for the bhoomi puja scheduled on August 21 which was supposed to see the presence of CM Shinde, Deputy CM Fadnavis apart from TTD Chairman V Y Subba Reddy and TTD Executive Officer A V Dharma Reddy.

Nandkumar Pawar, head of Coastal Projects of NGO Sagar Shakti

Interestingly, even TTD officials in Andhra Pradesh were initially clueless about the cancellation. When asked about it, one official had said, "We have no clue. We just learnt about the cancellation of the event."

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The officer added, "Many devotees from Maharashtra visit Tirumala Tirupati regularly. In April this year, then minister Aaditya Thackeray had visited Tirupati along with Milind Narvekar, who is also a member of TTD Board. Soon after the visit, Thackeray had informed us that the Maharashtra government decided to allot 10 acres of land in Ulwe for temple construction."

Attempts to contact Narvekar and Thackeray did not yield any result.

The whistleblower

Amid this, green activists were opposing the move to construct a temple there. Environmentalist Nandkumar Pawar, head of Coastal Projects of NGO Sagar Shakti who brought the issue to the fore, said, "The systematic destruction of mangroves on the proposed temple site has been happening since the construction work of MTHL started four years ago. The entire proposed land of 10 acres is now secured with barbed wires."

"The local fishing community, worried about their livelihood and the fate of the site after the MTHL work gets done, got in touch with me, and that is when they learnt about the proposed temple there," said Pawar, adding, "The former environment minister was talking about saving Aarey from the Metro car shed, but did exactly the opposite here."

How they stopped it

Pawar said, "Three days before the bhoomi puja, I made a written complaint before the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change as well as Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority (MCZMA), objecting to the proposed temple in violation of CRZ rules. And as CM Shinde and Deputy CM Fadnavis had, on July 26 on the occasion of International Day for Conservation of the Mangrove Ecosystem, had said mangroves are coastal soldiers and that they would protect the same from human exploitation, they had to cancel the event to maintain the image of the government."

NatConnect Foundation Director B N Kumar, who extended support to Pawar, said, "We are happy that the CM cancelled the bhoomi puja following our concerns. Now that the TTD has applied for CRZ clearance, green groups and the fishing community have called for a joint site inspection before the MCZMA decides on giving the project its nod."

He added, "Environmental lovers are wondering as to how Aaditya Thackeray handed over the mangrove land to TTD. We will continue our protest, till justice is done to nature."

Other side

Mallikarjuna, special officer of TTD Estate Wing, said, "We [TTD] have applied to various competent authorities seeking permission to start the construction work of the temple."

He added, "The land registration was done on August 17. The MTHL casting work is still underway, and we are hopeful that the same will get completed in a month or two. Once we obtain the permissions, we will begin the construction work."

Kailash Shinde, joint managing director-3, CIDCO, said, "CIDCO has no role to play in the permissions, other than allotting the land." When asked if the said land falls under CRZ norms, he said, "The land allotted to TTD was under CRZ-II, where construction work may happen with required permission from the authorities concerned."

Pawar, however, claimed that the mangroves belt by default fall under CRZ-I. He said, "CIDCO has always been in denial of CRZ violations across Navi Mumbai and Panvel. We have evidence to prove them wrong."

21
Day in August when the bhoomi puja was scheduled