If green cover continues to shrink, day not far when people will have to carry oxygen cylinders: HC

Mumbai, Jul 14 (PTI) The Bombay High Court on Tuesday lamented the diminishing mangroves in the city and said if the green cover continues to shrink then the day may not be far when people will have to carry "oxygen cylinders to take oxygen shots". The remark came from a division bench of Acting Chief Justice Ravindra Ghuge and Justice Gautam Ankhad while hearing a plea by the Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Company Ltd (MSETCL) seeking permission to fell 847 mangrove trees for laying a 132 KV transmission line from Dahanu to Ambesari in Palghar district for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project. The bench noted that the larger concern was not that the mangroves were being cut but whether the authorities ensured that compensatory plantations survived. "The problem is that you all do not replant. The plants which you then plant have started dying. You only create a picture that you have planted something. You don't turn around and see whether it is alive after you have planted it," the court said. The court also questioned the proposal for compensatory afforestation outside the affected region and noted that afforestation cannot be done in a place which already has a lot of trees. "It is a loss for this area. As it is, Bombay has so little oxygen that the day will not be far when people will carry oxygen cylinders to take oxygen shots," the court remarked. Advocate General Milind Sathe, appearing for the state, submitted that instead of planting elsewhere, the government would identify degraded forest land in the same region for afforestation. "We will identify degraded forest land. But that will take time," he said. The plea stated that the proposed 13.06-km transmission line requires diversion of 3.35 hectares of forest land, including 1.9656 hectares of mangrove forest. It claimed that three alternative alignments were examined and the final route was selected to minimise impact on forests and other ecologically sensitive areas. It highlighted that the transmission line was urgently required as the Prime Minister is scheduled to inaugurate the bullet train project in October. After the 2018 Bombay High Court judgment imposing a complete freeze on destruction of mangroves without its approval, all public infrastructure projects involving mangrove felling require the court's permission. The bench reserved its orders on the plea. PTI SP NP