TOI: Thane civic drive to regain green cover: January 15, 2009 

The white mangrove species found around the Thane creek will be planted at four waterfront locations that have suffered rapid industrialization and urban growth in the last decade.

The saplings, presently grown at a nursery at Ghodbunder, will be planted in a phased manner at Kopri, Kalwa and Ghodbunder.

“It is part of our ongoing drive to fill the mangrove denuded plots and preserve the ecosystem. We have planted nearly one lakh saplings since the programme started in 2004. “Our target is to plant 20,000 saplings in the corporation area this year,” deputy municipal commissioner B G Pawar told TOI.

The Thane creek was once a dense mangrove forest but, over the years, the plants have been chopped away and the land reclaimed; the reclamation-to construct a residential building or an industrial units often illegal.

TMC officials recently pulled down more than 700 ground-floor tenements and buildings that had come up on mangrove land. The TMC action led to a violent clash between the police and residents from the area, who claimed the state should have built a fence around the plantations if it was serious about conserving the mangrove cover.

The TMC plans to spend over Rs 10 lakh in the plantation drive. “There are about 32 species of mangrove plants in the Thane coastal zone. We will plant the white mangroves which help in controlling water pollution and also act as a wall against flooding,” an official said.

Pawar said the TMC did not have a mangrove census or knew the exact area under mangrove cover. He added that the continuous plantation drive by the Tree Authority wing of the TMC would help restore the fragile ecology of the region.

URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/cityarticlelist/articleshow/3980557.cms