Mahim Nature Park

Maharashtra Nature Park

Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority

MMRDA

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis

World Wildlife Fund

Bombay Natural History Society

Bandra-Kurla Complex

Sanjay Gandhi National Park

The notification was issued on March 5 with a month’s time for people to raise objections to it. So, the city now has just two weeks left to save this verdant land.The state government’s proposal to use the 41-acrein Mahim, one of the city’s last surviving green spaces, for redeveloping Dharavi ran into stiff resistance on Monday with environmentalists urging Mumbaikars to flood the emails of the Slum Redevelopment Authority (SRA), the), andwith objections to the move.The notification to include the nature park, popularly referred to as Mahim Nature Park, into the redevelopment of sector 5 of Dharavi was issued on March 5 and a month’s time was given for people to raise objections to it. So, the city now has just two weeks left to save this verdant land – home to about 85 species of butterflies, 154 species of birds, 32 reptiles, and 200 tree species – from slipping into the hands of builders.The land on which the park, conceived by thein the 1970s, stands is owned by the MMRDA. On Monday, MMRDA chief U P S Madan said he was not aware of SRA’s decision to use it for Dharavi’s redevelopment and would request the Urban Development department not to go ahead with the plan.The, a wildlife research organisation, said it will make a representation before the government requesting it to not let a concrete jungle replace the nature park. Calling it an ecological suicide, BNHS director Deepak Apte said. Founder-director of Sprouts, an environment NGO, Anand Pendharkar, said he will help the common folk who may wish to send their objections to the SRA.Among the political parties, the Shiv Sena was the first to move, drafting a letter to be submitted to the chief minister, who heads the Urban Development Department, on Tuesday. The letter, a copy of which was reviewed by this newspaper, asks the chief minister to refrain from feeding the park to the builders. “The park should be immediately notified as a protected forest,” the letter says.Bittu Sahgal, editor, Sanctuary Asia, and former co-chairman of the nature park, expressed shock that the government could even think of drawing up such a disastrous plan. “The Maharashtra Nature Park is a ‘deemed forest’ as per orders of the Supreme Court. Not an inch of its biodiverse sprawl can be touched by developers. This is now also a ‘soak’ that helps control monsoon flooding of the Mithi River. City planners seem unaware of the damage they inflict on Mumbai city,” he said.Housing Minister Prakash Mehta, however, defended the SRA move. “There will be no construction allowed on the land where the nature park currently stands. It has been included only for better planning of the entire area. Also, nothing has been finalised yet. Only suggestions and objections have been invited.”Environmentalists, however, believe that once the park is included into Dharavi’s development, nothing will be able to stop builders from exploiting it. In terms of real estate value, the park is a goldmine because of its proximity to the, Mumbai’s most soughtafter commercial area.Stalin Dayanad, Save Aarey activist, said that if we let the government have its way with the MNP then it is clear that Mumbai has not learnt any lessons from what is happening at Aarey and the. “The chief minister is misleading us. On the one hand he talks of saving open space, and on the other he is giving away one of Mumbai’s green lungs.”Manisha Kayande, associate professor of zoology at MD College and a Shiv Sena spokesperson, has strongly objected to the SRA move. “From butterflies to trees, MNP has a rich ecosystem and five decades of efforts of many passionate experts have been invested to build this space,” she said.Ulhas Rane, director of Envirodesigners Pvt Ltd, which helped convert the MNP from a dumping ground in the 70s to the current park, is disturbed to hear of the development. “The MNP is a pioneering project and 10 other states have created such parks. The MNP is notified as ‘Important Bird Area’ on a global map. How can any government even think of any proposal that can harm the MNP in the long term,” Rane wondered.