In a landmark move, Maharashtra has officially become the first state in India to cordon off and designate 15,087.6 hectares of mangrove land as reserved forests. Over time, mangroves have become quite a neglected aspect of conservation efforts despite serving as buffers during natural disasters, such as tsunamis and cyclones, which are pretty likely to occur in Mumbai as per a World Bank report.
Only mangroves that are currently on Government land are eligible for protection; “The land will now be transferred to the forest department, which will be responsible for its protection and conservation. Earlier, we needed to inform the collector for any action to be taken,” says N. Vasudevan, Chief Conservator of the mangrove conservation cell.
This process began in 2005 when the Bombay High Court issued a directive that the mangrove areas were to be specially demarcated. The Mangrove Conservation Cell was set up and they obtained satellite images of Mumbai and Navi Mumbai to begin the notification process which was completed in 2008.

Despite the outward appearance of the movement being for the benefit and preservation of India’s ecology there are many conservationists that are suspicious of the move. The skeptics believe that it’s a play by the authorities that merely assures Government control over areas that are rightly under the protection of the Coastal Regulation Zone, especially as it currently excludes private land.
However, for now people have decided to view this directive through a positive lens, and as D Stalin, Director of the NGO Vanashakti, said to Times of India. “We only hope that the tag will mean more protection and will not be an excuse for diversion of these lands for so called development projects. It has taken over a decade for the government to notify the mangroves on its land; by the time it does so for those on private land much of the mangroves would have been destroyed. It is high time the government acted quickly.” Whichever way this move pans out, its immediate consequences will hopefully be the revival of Maharashtra’s mangroves and that’s something we can all get behind.

Featured Image Courtesy Huffington Post