Besides, the distance between the airport and the Karnala bird sanctuary is less than the prescribed 10km, though while asking for the green nod, the officials had wrongly shown it to be more than 10km.
"It is a very serious matter that City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra Limited (Cidco) hid the fact about the reserved forest in the airport zone while obtaining the environment clearance. The green clearance should be revoked on this very point," said Debi Goenka of Conservation Action Trust. "Last month, I, along with senior Cidco officials, conducted a field survey of the airport land and found that its distance from the Karnala sanctuary boundary is 9.5km. An airport coming up this close to a bird sanctuary is dangerous, considering possibilities of bird-hits."
Following the find, he complained about it to Union environment secretary Tishya Chatterjee, asking the ministry to revoke the green clearance. "Cidco is spending around Rs 5,000 crore to flatten two hillocks, change the courses of two rivers, remove 400 acre mangroves and the now disclosed 130 hectares (around 321 acres) of reserved forests. It is wiser to shift the airport elsewhere than spend an insane amount to destroy nature," said Goenka. Read the full report here.
Source: Vijay Singh & Chittaranjan Tembhekar, TNN, Navi Mumbai.
