Police form a special squad just to protect mangroves

Mumbai: Even after losing over 40% of its mangrove cover in the last decade, the reclaimed city refuses to learn. Now, in a bid to prevent the land mafia from killing mangroves and grabbing the land surrounding it, police have now formed a dedicated mangrove squad which will keep vigil on illegal dumping of debris in mangrove zones. In the first phase, the squad will be positioned in North Mumbai areas like Borivili and Dahisar.

The squad, which was formed last week by zonal deputy commissioner of police Sanjay Banerjee, has already fined four dumper drivers for driving in the Coastal Regulatory Zone (CRZ). They have also registered five cases under theenvironment protection actagainst persons who were found dumping debris.

The squad consists of two sub inspectors from MHB colony and Gorai police stations. The sub inspectors have 10 policemen each under them. “The squad patrols the mangroves at night when the dumpers and trucks usually attempt to dump the construction debris,” said Banerjee, adding that dumping is done to convert the mangroves into construction sites.

The initiative was taken after Banerjee received a letter from
the New Link Road Residents Forum highlighting the issue. SP Matthew, one of the members of the forum, said, “We had submitted a letter along with two photo proofs of the dumping activities.” Mathew said that the miscreants had created earthen bunds inside the mangroves to block water flow and thus arrest the growth of flora.

The members of the forum, consisting over 50 housing societies along the Link Road in Borivili and Dahisar, had kept a watch on the activities in the mangroves and later decided to take up the matter with the authorities. “We submitted the letter two weeks ago and the DCP assured us immediate action,” added Matthew.

Banerjee is now also communicating with the civic authorities to work out a solution to stop theentry of dumpers, trucks and other heavy vehicles into mangrove areas. “I have advised them to erect concrete blocks on mangrove roads to block entry of heavy vehicles. Only bicycles or motorcycles can pass through such narrow routes,” said Banerjee, who is planning to appoint more such squads in areas likeMalvani in Malad which too has several mangroves.