Thane locals foil mangrove reclaim bid

THANE: Alert citizens thwarted an attempt to illegally reclaim a vast stretch of mangrove land near Saket Creek in Thane. The mangrove land, located near Thane Central Jail, has been notified under the Coastal Regulation Zone, thus preventing the plot’s development or its reclamation.

For the last three days, the citizens, who reside in the neighbourhood, had been spotting trucks systematically dumping concrete and brick rubble on the land. “More than 100 trucks have unloaded debris on the mangrove plots. A JCB machine was also deployed to level the rubble. I confronted one of the persons accompanying the dumpers, who told me to mind my business,” said Dayanand Nene, a member of Alert Citizens of Thane. Nene then promptly informed deputy mayor Milind Patankar.

On Monday, Nene and Patankar went to the site and approached a man who claimed to be a constable supervising the work. “We asked him who was behind the dumping. When we persisted, he called his seniors and left,” Nene said. On Patankar’s intervention, Thane civic authorities and district collectorate officials reached the site and stopped the dumping.