Mumbai's last surviving green lungs are constantly battling the prying eyes of developers & bureaucrats. Latest to the list of trouble mongers are forest fires. First-hand information from the firefighters revealed that fires have been a regular occurrence in the forest every year. 
Whether it is a systematic ploy to keep on reducing green cover so that the area can be made available without any controversies or it is a natural occurrence, forest maintenance for fire prevention is inefficient in our city. Besides fire control lines, actions undertaken to minimize forest fire damage are inadequate. 

There should be stringent laws that protect the burnt jungles from the developer lobby. Irrespective of the loss of tree cover due to fires, the burnt forest area with its surviving biodiversity should always be classified as a no development zone. Burnt forest area can also serve as an ideal site for afforestation and transplantation of trees. 

 
If burnt forest areas are not allowed for any development activities under strict laws, there is a high probability that the occurrence of forest fires will be reduced.