Click to play videoMumbai: Even as India joins in with world leaders to take centerstage in climate control and resolving to reduce it's carbon foot prints, back home it could be a losing battle for environmentalists especially with blatant violations at the grassroot level.
In Mumbai's Oshiwara 500 acres of lush green mangroves once stood till they were systematically destroyed.
"There used to be a patch of mangrove. Infact the sea breached and naturally brought in the mangroves again. Some people are desperately trying to dump rubble onto it and plug that,” environmentalist Rishi Aggrawal said.
The reason behind this environmental desecration is the plan for a 198-acre golf course, 200 luxury villas and a seven star hotel – all allegedly illegally by the Behramji Jeejibhoy Trust that holds the land. The Trust says there was no mangrove and neither was any dumping done but Mumbai's green brigade is not convinced.
Environmentalists stepped in when the work first started in 1998-99 which successfully put the brakes on the project by September 2002. An attempt at restarting work again in 2003 through a High Court order was further quashed. And a Supreme Court order in 2004 said that no work could further take place.
But what we saw at the site was a different story. So systematic was the work that the Trust has allegedly hired goons and given them cars and bikes to keep an eye on the entire periphery.
"When I came here in 1995 the mangroves were right next to my house. There were so many migratory birds, barking deers as well as wild boars that I've spotted. Today this place looks like some desert,” a resident of Oshiwara Shahriyar Khan said.
What's worrying local residents as well as environmentalists is the loss of this natural habitat. Close to 45 migratory birds have been spotted in this area besides numerous other aquatic and microorganisms. And this loss of the natural eco system they feel is not something that will be easily renewable.
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