Housing for poor project destroyed 30% mangrove in West Godavari

Kakinada: The Joint Committee appointed by the Southern Bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT), to ascertain destruction of mangroves in Kakinada in the proposed housing project of the Government of Andhra Pradesh has confirmed that as much as 30 per cent of the area having mangroves was destroyed by the project.

The NGT, comprising judicial member Justice K Ramakrishnan and the expert member Saibal Dasgupta appointed the committee which consisted of senior officer of Ministry of Environment and Forests and Climate Change, Chennai; senior officer from Andhra Pradesh Coastal Zone Management Authority, senior officer nominated by the Principal Chief Conservator of Forest and Head of Forest Forces or Chief Wildlife Warden, the District Collector of West Godavari and District Forest Officer of West Godavari (Kakinada), to ascertain the facts on mangrove destruction for distribution of house sites for homeless urban poor.

The Ministry of Environment & Climate Change (MOEF &CC), Chennai Scientist Dr C Palpandi and Joint Committee inspected the salt creek lands, house sites and destruction of mud flat along with Joint Collector Dr Lakshmisha, Smart City CEO and MD and Kakinada Municipal Corporation Commissioner Swapnil Dinakar Pundkar, RDO AG Chinni Krishna, Kakinada Urban MRO Satish, DFO and other officials on December 10. After completing the inspection, Palpandi submitted the report to the NGT.

The Committee also observed that the land had been levelled and additional soil gravel from outside the area now changed the texture of the mud and due to the levelling, the flow of the stream had been obstructed. The Committee concluded that construction of such projects cannot be permitted in CRZ-I area, which is the current categorisation of the said area.

The district administration also informed that they initiated the process of changing the CRZ category from CRZ-IA to CRZ-II. In a hearing on Thursday, it was argued by the applicant's counsel, Sanjay Upadhyay, that there was no process known to law which can convert a natural categorisation to another category, such as CRZ-II under the CRZ notification.

The Tribunal had also asked the Committee to examine the destruction by way of satellite maps and the Committee found that destruction had occurred in the green cover. The temporal map of 2005 and 2019 clearly revealed that the green patches have now been destroyed. The Committee also noted that no CRZ clearance had been obtained till date.

Satyanarayana, the petitioner also sought time to make certain observations on the Committee report which categorically stated that the district administration should not proceed with the construction till the necessary permissions were obtained. The Committee also recommended that mangrove plantations should be carried out by the district administration adjacent to the Coringa Wildlife Sanctuary as a compensatory measure.