Give us our land back
For fishermen of Gorai, the fight for their land began over a bund that destroyed their mangroves
Last week, the Bombay High Court censured State Industries Minister Narayan Rane for ‘misusing’ his powers to give away 669 acres of government-owned mangrove land near Gorai in 1997, to a company that manages an amusement park next door.
The minister had apparently favoured the company even as the HC was hearing a suit filed by the company claiming ownership of the disputed land. The latest order by the court means that while Rane’s order has been struck down, the ownership issue will still be decided by the single bench of the court that is hearing the suit.
Fishermen from the area, represented by a group called Gorai Machchimar Sahakari Sanstha (GMSS), are now planning to file an application before the court asking it to list them as a litigant when the ownership dispute is heard again.
Since the last two decades, residents of the area – largely fishermen and farmers – have been fighting several court cases to protect the mangroves and creeks from land-hungry property developers. The villages are home to the East Indian community and many of the churches date back to the time when the Portuguese ruled the area.
According to data collected by a community journal, Christian Spotlight, the British colonial administration had leased the land in 1885 for 999 years for farming to a person named Shyamrao Velkar. To make the land cultivable, it was decided to block the flow of sea water from the estuaries with a dam. The experiment failed and in 1944, the government took back the land.
The dispute was largely forgotten till the land’s ownership changed hands again – this time from the descendants of Shyamrao Velkar to the company. When government officials found out about the sale, they challenged the deal and the company went to the HC to protect their claim over the land. Thus the dispute is over a century old.
But for local fishermen whose petitions led to the latest HC order, the fight for the land started with a bund. In 1998, they saw a 150-metrelong, 10-foot-wide and eightfoot-high mud dam being constructed by the company to stop tides flowing into the mangroves from Versova, Manori and Gorai creeks.
The mangroves are vital for sustaining the local fishing industry. When the bund was being built, most fishermen were not aware that the land’s ‘ownership’ had changed hands. “The fishermen knew nothing about the land deal and it was only when the fish catch from the creeks started dwindling, they realised that the bund was responsible for the decline. The mangroves are prime fish-breeding areas,” said Lourdes D’Souza of the Dharavi Bet Bachao Samiti, a group that wants to protect the area from rash development. Dharavi Bet, meaning ‘island’, is the local name for an area that includes Gorai, Manori, Uttan and a few other villages.
The GMSS filed a complaint with the Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority (MCZMA) saying that the bund destroyed the mangroves. When the MCZMA allowed the bund to stay, the fishermen went to the HC in 2005 to challenge the order.
In January 2006, when the high court ordered the bund to be partially broken down to restore tidal flow, the company approached the Supreme Court. The apex court stayed the high court order in August 2008 but asked the HC to hear both the environment and land case together. Earlier, the fishermen had approached the court challenging Rane’s order.
According to Gordon D’Souza, vice president of the Bombay Catholic Sabha and editor of Christian Spotlight, residents wanted development of the area to be sustainable. “It should take care of the educational, occupational and cultural needs and enhance the economic status of the locals. Locals should be made partners in development and it should be done in a phased manner after consulting the real stakholders,” said D’Souza.
Since the past two decades, the fishermen and farmers of Gorai have been fighting several court cases to protect the mangroves from land-hungry property developers
Manoj R Nair writes on the multiple communities in Mumbai