Let,s have an eco-park at Borivli, says activist; check your premises, say top forest officers

Mr. Sameer Banerjee, chemical engineer from IIT (Bombay), ex-employee of Burmah Shell and Mafatlal, entrepreneur and now a .concerned. citizen, speaking at the last meeting on .The National Park initiative.

A "concerned" citizen and ardent environmentalist appeals to citizens to help save the Borivli National Park, which is a part of the extensive Sanjay Gandhi National Park and considered to be the city.s only surviving .lung., or patch of green.

He makes a pitch for creating an eco-park .to save the National Park from further degradation and ultimate destruction.. Five-star hotels, promenades, restaurants, cafes, casinos and beer bars feature in the suggestions that he puts forward.

But soon after his presentation, two government officers, charged with protecting those same parks, rise and state that some of the points made by the speaker are not correct. Further, the law of the land, as also several court rulings, prohibit the creation of eco-parks or other structures in the Borivli National Park.

The audience is taken aback by these contradictions and is left with no choice bit to allow both sides the benefit of the doubt.

It all happened at the last meeting of the Rotary Club of Bombay when the speaker was Mr. Sameer Banerjee, chemical engineer from IIT (Bombay), ex-employee of Burmah Shell and Mafatlal, entrepreneur and now a .concerned. citizen. He was speaking on .The National Park initiative ..

And among his audience were the said two government officers, Dr. P.N. Munde, Conservator of Forests and Director of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, and his senior officer, Dr. S.K. Khetarpal, Chief Conservator of Forests (Western Region), Maharashtra.

But first Mr. Banerjee. He started his presentation by reciting a tuneful invocation to Lord Pashupatinath and then went on to share the information that the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) was the only national park located in the lap of any metropolis anywhere in the world. He called it nature.s unique gift to Bombay.

Spread over 103 square km., SGNP contained two major lakes, Tulsi and Vihar. The river Ulhas flowed to the north; to the south was Powai Lake; several small rivers also originated from the park, notably the Dahisar river which flowed into the Manori creek and the Mithi river which emptied into the Mahim creek.

Hardly 40 km. from the city, it was barely 20 km. from the international airport and sat right in the heart of the suburbs like a veritable green lung of the city.

Mr. Banerjee said the SGNP was rich in flora and fauna and had vast stretches of trees. It sheltered about 250 species of birds, herbivores like .cheetal., .sambar. and the .barking deer., and only one predatory mammal, the leopard which, sadly, had now been almost eliminated.

Dr. S.K. Khetarpal, Chief Conservator of Forests, Western Maharashtra, (left) and Dr. P.N. Munde, Conservator of Forests and Director of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, come up with their own suggestions at the last meeting

A unique feature of the park was that it housed the Kanheri Caves, a 2,000-year-old series of Buddhist caves which had already been declared a World Heritage site.

Thus, the park consisted of three major regions: the forest cover, the two lakes and the Krishnagiri forest in the northern region which formed a small portion of the park and was known as the Borivli National Park.

Mr. Banerjee said a recent survey showed that Bombay was one of the ten most polluted cities in the world and it would have become .the most polluted city in the world. had it not been for the Sanjay Gandhi National Park.

.Immense development and the growth and influx of population have been putting tremendous pressures on the park. We have all sorts of people, quarries, saw mills, bootleggers, builders, illegal encroachers and so on in the park. These (activities) have been going on for some time. The authorities have been trying their best, but the forest cover has been declining quite rapidly.

.Quarries and other activities within the reserved areas have played their destructive part. Such encroachments have had their effect on the fragile eco-sphere of the park, resulting in large-scale denudation of the forest cover..

Mr. Banerjee said despite High Court and Supreme Court orders, encroachers were not budging from the site. A .tabela. (a shed for cows and buffaloes), which was actually a .vote bank. of 30 persons, had been ordered to be evicted several times and by several courts, but it had not moved.

The decline in the forest cover had led to a decline in the bovine population which, in turn, forced the carnivores, specially the largest carnivores, the leopards, to enter human settlements for food.

A man-animal conflict flared up because of this and resulted in the tragic death of several people and injuries to several others. Each .encounter. caused a huge public outcry and the forest authorities had to do a lot of damage control to assuage the feelings of the victims. families and the public in general.

Mr. Sameer Banerjee replies to the pointed queries raised by Dr. Shailesh Raina at the last meeting

On the other hand, when the forest authorities trapped the .errant. animals, it housed these .big cats. in tiny, temporary cages that were too small and unsuitable for large animals.

Several activists had to raise an alarm because many of the animals so trapped were females. The first animal was trapped in 2004 in the IIT campus, Mr. Banerjee recalled.

.When I went to see it, I found that she was teething, which means that she was rearing cubs. It was the third or fourth day after she was trapped. In the forest, the law of the jungle would have taken over. The cubs wouldn.t have survived.

.People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), a very powerful, a very beautiful NGO, had conducted a feasibility study with the cooperation of the forest officials and Mrs. Anuradha Sahney gave me some snapshots of the study. These show the condition of the trapped leopards in the SGNP.

.This was at the Junnar animal rescue centre, about 150 km. from SGNP. This (tiny) cage was used to trap a female leopard; she had aborted in transit and maybe the cubs had died. It was quite a pathetic situation..

Mr. Banerjee pointed out that in spite of court directions issued in 1995 and 1997, the construction of .a formidable compound wall around the park. was yet to be completed. This was not the fault of the government or the forest officials, but .because of certain pressures from various quarters..

Getting together to work together. IPP Harry Singh Arora is flanked by President-Elect Ashish Vaid and Bharat Taparia (left) at the last meeting

If things were allowed to deteriorate, then in another five years there would be no National Park worth talking about. Therefore, there was an urgent need to save the National Park from being wiped off the map of Bombay.

Worried by the seriousness of the situation, Mr. Banerjee and his NGO had decided to study the problem more deeply. At the end of the study, it was found that there was a consensus, both among the citizens as well as the decision-makers in the government, to save the park in order to save the city.

.There is also no doubt that the park cannot be saved unless it is able to generate sufficient funds to be able to look after itself and to provide adequate returns to the city and to the State.

.It.s now apparent that merely creating a formidable wall and providing the basics for the animals inside and humans outside, to prevent further interaction between the two, cannot alone tackle the problem.

On the head table at the last meeting. From left are Hiren Kara, Pankaj Baliga and Pradeep Saxena

The problem has to be dealt with holistically, on an eco-commercial footing, (we have to find) a solution that benefits the forest and its animals and (adopt) a commercial approach to the whole problem of environmental and animal welfare that makes this park a unique eco-tourist park generating huge revenue, from its present status of being a drain on the ever-dwindling resources..

Mr. Banerjee turned to the huge national parks in Africa and pointed out that the section that was open to the public was only a part (.a beautifully cultivated eco-park.) of the actual national park.

Behind the eco-park was the real, .reserved. park which was meant for the serious environmentalists, most of whom footed it out inside that part of the park.

Arising from this, the speaker said, the authorities could consider converting the Borivli National Park, the only part of the SGNP that was dereserved, into an eco-park. The rest of SGNP, especially the forest cover, could be retained as it was, .as it is the lung of the city..

Moreover, the forest cover also served as an excellent rain-trap or water basin. It could help contain the water and, as a result of that, flooding (as in 2005) would be minimised to a great extent, if not eliminated altogether.

What about the third part of SGNP? The lakes and the rivers? Mr. Banerjee said these could be converted into tourist attractions.

Returning to the proposed ecopark, he said it could turn out to be a major tourist attraction in the city. It was hardly 20 km. from the airport and with over a million visitors, especially foreigners, coming to Bombay every year, if even a small fraction decided to visit the eco-park at the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, then the benefits would be huge.

.You have the market, you have to build up your product. It will automatically garner huge revenue for the State of Maharashtra and also for the city..

.There will be more than 500 foreigners coming every month, there will be more than 5,000 Indians coming every month.

Thank you for visiting us and speaking at the Rotary Club of Bombay. President Dr. Rumi Jehangir thanks Mr. Sameer Banerjee

You save the park, you save the greens and at the same time you create revenue for yourself, for the state and strengthen the eco-system of the city and save the dwindling wildlife from extinction. These are some of the benefits of our plan..

Mr. Banerjee pointed out that the tiny city-state of Singapore had five zoological gardens and, together, these earned the highest amount of foreign exchange for the government.

As for the Mithi river, Mr. Banerjee said it would look simply out of this world if it was converted into a grand promenade, something like .The Mithi River Walk..

In many countries in Europe and also in the USA, even rivers flowing through desert regions were .harnessed., with trees planted all around and other infrastructure allowed to develop.

.Five-star hotels, office complexes, beer bars, cafes, casinos. see this aspect, too. You will be saving the river, preserving it, and at the same time converting it into a mighty economic advantage. You can do boating here, you can take a walk along the promenade, take your wife in the boat.

.The trees will help minimise evaporation and also add to the verdant features of the place. And civilisation would be just walking (or driving) past. You can stop, come over, take a walk on the promenade. Spend some time, go to a hotel, then climb the bridge and go back to civilisation. It.s beautiful. It.s just wonderful.

.I am giving this to you both as a diversion and as a part of this presentation, since there is always an advantage in aesthetically presenting your environment, your natural beauty, so that you not only deal (with all) the money but also save the environment. .

Mr. Banerjee appealed to the citizens of Bombay and to industry and business houses to come forward to help the .National Park Initiative. achieve its goal of creating an ecopark to save the National Park from further degradation and ultimate destruction.

Those funding the protective walls would be able to use it later on as .a large billboard for future hoardings.. There was no need to ask the government for funds for the .Mithi River Walk., either. Industry could step forward and do it. It could later sell the plots that would become available to hoteliers and others.

A group of three. Seen together at a recent meeting are (from left to right) Bipin Kapadia, who celebrates his birthday this week, Nelum Gidwani and Subrata Mitra

You can have so many five-star hotels over there. So you save the river and you enhance the beauty of the whole thing. The accent will be on preserving our natural wealth and adding beauty with simple utilitarian and tourist-friendly assets. This is the very essence of our presentation,. Mr. Banerjee concluded.

Raising a pointed question, Dr. Shailesh Raina noted that Powai Lake was .killed. by the creation of the Hiranandani Complex on the hills near the IIT campus. If the speaker.s suggestions for promenades, five-star hotels, restaurants, malls and so on were implemented along the Mithi river, surely that would .kill. the Mithi river?

Disagreeing with him, Mr. Banerjee said Powai Lake did not .die. because of the Hiranandani Complex but because of the non-stop pollution from the industries in and around Sakinaka. But now efforts were on to clean the Powai Lake. Even IIT alumni were getting together to collect funds for the same.

He added that when any development was planned, it was necessary to first assess the side-effects. As for the Mithi river plans, the environment would be kept in mind while drawing up the final blueprints.

The Green Vision and Child Care Committees, both chaired by PP Kalpana Munshi, has been active with several projects. This was the scene at Holy Name School, Andheri (East)

When Dr. Raina insisted that Powai had lost its greenery and its .cooler. clime, Mr. Banerjee replied: .That is the important thing. You have to bring the greenery back, you have to make it verdant. That is the message, that is the most important thing..

Dr. P.N. Munde, Conservator of Forests and Director of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, then took the mike to make a few points.

He thanked Mr. Banerjee for his suggestions on professional management and for his commercial ideas and then announced that the tree cover in the forests of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park had increased, not only qualitatively but also quantitatively.

Similarly, there was an increase in the number of flora, fauna, birds and wildlife, as revealed by an analysis of data over the last 20 years.

A major tree-planting programme was undertaken, jointly with M/s Financial Technologies, when over 100 trees were planted. With Kalpana is Shyamnivas Somani

The speaker said that wildlife is dwindling, which is not true. Secondly, not a single quarry is operating in the National Park, not only inside but even on the fringes. This is a result of the efforts of the forest authorities.

.Thirdly, about 200 acres of forest land which had been encroached upon has been recovered and 50,000 hutments have been removed. This means that 80% of the land is clear from encroachments.

.The threat to the National Park as such has been minimised 60 to 80% during the last eight to ten years, thanks to the efforts of the media, the city.s elite and the support of the high courts, the gover-nment itself and the citizens of Bombay..

Dr. Munde appealed to members to visit SGNP and spend an hour there. They would be introduced to the park, to the forest, to the unique eco-system that existed there, an ecosystem that was .very much alive..

Reports to this effect had been documented by a third party, the Bombay Natural History Society, and not by the authorities at Sanjay Gandhi National Park.

Turning to Mr. Banerjee.s suggestion for converting National Park into an eco-park, he said this was not permitted under the existing laws, such as the rules and regulations laid down by the Wildlife Act and by the Supreme Court.

The setting up of any establishment inside the park or on the fringe of the park, was taboo.

Dr. Munde said: .There is a mandate not to create any sort of eco-park within the notified national park. So (as to) our speaker.s idea about an eco-park, it would suit and be workable only on open land which is available in Aarey Milk Colony. This proposal suits the Aarey Milk Colony.

Several schools in the neighbourhood were also involved in the treeplanting drive. Kalpana and Shyam had no hesitation in soiling their hands during the plantation

These clarifications are needed. because in SGNP it will be legally difficult to build eco-tourism. We have ourselves proposed to the government to create an eco-park in the Aarey Milk Colony..

Finally, the mike went to Dr. S.K. Khetarpal, Chief Conservator of Forests (Western Region), Bombay.

He said right off that .we are not here to defend ourselves. If there is something wrong, we would definitely like to correct it because the SGNP belongs to the public..

Taking up the man-animal conflict which started with the first .catch. at the IIT campus, he pointed out that before the new constructions started coming up, the land they occupied was part of the .buffer zone. outside the Sanjay Gandhi National Park.

.One must understand the dynamics and the ecology of the parks and the wildlife. The fact is that the park is limited to 103 sq. km. Earlier, there was a type of buffer zone, where there was no construction. The animals were moving around and there was no public or population, so there was no threat.

.But once the constructions started coming up around the park and people started inhabiting the area, the animals that used to move around there suddenly became a threat and so had to be trapped. Maybe some of them, one or two animals, were not properly trapped, as has been shown, and were kept in Junnar.

At simple functions inside the respective schools, Shyam and Kalpana were felicitated and explained the long-term benefits of the project. Shyam is Chairman for Shakti/RCCs

That was in the beginning, when we did not have the facilities. But today. I would like him (the speaker) to go and see the .Manik Doh. rescue centre in Junnar where we have created an open-type enclosure where animals that have been trapped and rescued are kept. They are not caged, they can move around.

.We understood that though we have trapped the animals, they need to be kept in open spaces and we have tried to do it. I assure the people of Bombay and the country that the National Park is very safe in the hands of the forest officers,. Dr. Khetarpal declared.

(Later, he explained that the Manik Doh rescue centre had been set up with the help of the government of India and had both cages as well as open areas surrounded by nets.)

Earlier, introducing the guest speaker, Pankaj Baliga said that M/s TCS had been contracted for digitisation of SGNP to help track the animals in the park, their trails, the amount of vegetation and also to show the encroachments across the borders. Hiren Kara proposed the vote of thanks.

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