Shri Uddhav Thackeray ji,

Hon. Chief minister of Maharashtra,

Your attention is invited to a recent news appearing in Hindustan Times which says "Cidco opposes bid to declare Navi Mumbai flamingo havens as conservation reserves" - Hindustan Times - https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/cidco-opposes-bid-to-declare-navi-mumbai-flamingo-havens-as-conservation-reserves/story-ThGrWHgNGmbunUXD2x9Y7L.html

As reported in this article

1. The City Industrial Development Corporation Ltd (Cidco), Maharashtra’s planning agency, has rejected the idea of declaring areas in Navi Mumbai and Uran, where thousands of flamingos migrated to in April and May, as conservation reserves, saying they are “developable land parcels” and originally salt pans.

2.Cidco plans to develop a golf course and 17 buildings with 1,564 flats and 20 offices in the area. Environmentalists and residents have opposed the proposed constructions and the Bombay high has also stayed them. The matter is now pending before the Supreme Court.

3.The State Mangrove Cell in April proposed protection of five sites--NRI (21.9 ha), TSC (14 ha) in Navi Mumbai, and Panje (124 ha), Bhendkhal (8 ha) and Belpada (30 ha) in Uran--as conservation reserves based on a Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) report. It sought comments from the Raigad district administration and landowners--Cidco, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) and some private companies--under the Navi Mumbai Special Economic Zone (NMSEZ). JNPT and NMSEZ have also rejected the proposed protection.

4.Cidco called BNHS’s report incorrect and highlighted the latter’s another 2014 report that recommended making areas, including TSC and NRI, near the Navi Mumbai International Airport unattractive for birds to avoid the risk of bird hits. It added the BNHS’s 2019 report overlooked this aspect of flight safety while recommending conservation reserves.

Please note that:

1.BNHS’s Deepak Apte said the suggestions made in the 2014 interim report were specific to a proposed mangrove park adjacent to NMIA’s runway. “It was not at all in the context of NRI, TSC, and the other three wetlands in Uran. Our view is consistent right from the beginning that all these five wetlands need to be protected.”

2.“Protecting these wetlands will help us achieve our sustainable development goals and commitments to the global community on Central Asian Flyway that the Prime Minister had announced during the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS COP 13) in Gandhinagar in February,” said Deepak Apte, director, BNHS, in a news article published in Hindustan Times earlier. “They are vital migratory bird habitats and their protection is crucial from the air safety point of view for the Navi Mumbai International Airport.”

In view of above you are requested to personally intervene in the matter for the sake of environment as well as air safety point of view.

Please override the baseless objections of CIDCO whose only motive seems to benefit a few private builders in larger public interest and ask environment department to immediately notify these Wetlands under Wetlands Rules 2017 and declare them conservation reserve.

Also attaching herewith an article by Mr. Sunjoy Monga written two years back for hindustan times which answers each & every objection of CIdco & makes a case for protection of these Wetlands as part of our defence against climate related threats.

Thanking you,

Sunil Agarwal

For & on behalf of residents of Navi Mumbai