The Bombay high court (HC) on Friday observed that anything affecting ecology and forests cannot be allowed. It was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) urging that work on the Kondhane irrigation dam, being built on the Ulhas river in Raigad district, be stopped.A division bench of Justices D D Sinha and V K Tahilramani was hearing a petition by four activists, including Mayank Gandhi , a coordinator of India Against Corruption , which said there had been large-scale corruption in the construction of dams in Maharashtra. They alleged that the state's water resources department had been sanctioning dam projects without the water regulatory authority's clearance.Their advocate Mihir Desai , argued that the Kondhane dam was similar to the Kalu dam issue in respect of which construction has been stayed by the HC. "In fact, this is a 10 times worse case. It is the same developer,'' he said.Desai submitted that 260 acres of forest land was affected and no permission had been obtained from the ministry of environment and forests. He said the railway authorities have issued a stop-work notice as it was on the Mumbai-Pune railway line and was likely to affect it. "The work order issued for Rs58 crore within a month went up to Rs360 crore,'' said Desai. He said two of the petitioners have land in the area and when they sought information under the Right to Information Act, they stumbled upon these startling facts and decided to file the PIL.When the judges asked at what stage the work was, Desai replied that the governor had ordered a probe and urged the court to stay work. "If the governor has ordered an inquiry, obviously the government may ask the work to be stopped," said Justice Sinha. But Desai added, "Work keeps going on and on.'' The judges said it being the last working day of the regular court, they were unable to hear the matter. The state government and developer, F A Constructions, will file replies before June 29.