Maneka writes to Chavan over illegal construction near Karnala bird sanctuary

However,in January 2012,Gandhi stated in the letter,the Expert Appraisal Committee said the company would have to get Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) clearance to dispose treated effluent into the sea and also procure prior clearance from the Standing Committee of National Board for Wildlife without which no work could be started at the site. No environmental,wildlife and CRZ permissions were granted but the company has started building its factory at the site,alleged Gandhi.

“There have been a lot of complaints regarding this from bird-watchers in Mumbai and others. When I asked the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF),they confirmed that no permissions have been granted to the said project. Despite that,construction of the factory began about a month ago,” Gandhi told The Indian Express.

However,some bird experts who frequent the sanctuary said there are already some industries around it,which is unavoidable,and said environmental norms,such as the 10-km rule,need to be reconsidered. “There are factories and industrial complexes around so many protected areas in the urban context. Karnala lies in a part of the hugely human impacted area of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. The large industrial complex of Patalganga-Rasayani would,I presume,be less than 6 km as the crow flies,from Karnala,” said bird expert and environmentalist Sunjoy Monga.

“I think we need a mature insight and understanding of nature’s ways in the context of our expanding urban world. There are many lessons here for us and we have to look at this argument in a reasonable manner,in the context of our judicious administering of the limited urban land resource around the few urban protected areas than have a sweeping notion of self-defeating regulations,” he said.