Tiger Group seeks halt to tree felling at Sai Dongar and Bhimashankar, warns of street protest

Trees are being cut, and may be cut further, for proposed private projects at Sai Dongar in Karjat taluka of Raigad district and at Bhimashankar in Pune district. The Tiger Group Bharat organisation has demanded that this be stopped immediately. The organisation said both areas are highly sensitive forest zones.

It has asked for a thorough legal scrutiny of the forest and environment clearances for the projects and an immediate halt to all ongoing work. It warned that if this was not done, it would take to the streets in a sharp public agitation.

A detailed written memorandum was submitted on behalf of Mahabaleshwar taluka to Range Forest Officer Mohite, under the guidance of Tiger Group founder Jalindarbhau Jadhav and national president Dr Tanajibhau Jadhav. It briefed the administration on the situation and sought immediate intervention.

According to the memorandum, hundreds of hectares of forest land are being readied for diversion in the Sai Dongar area of Karjat in the name of a pumped storage project. This has raised fears of thousands of trees being felled. The Bhimashankar area, part of the Western Ghats, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is also coming under the grip of private projects. The organisation said Bhimashankar is not only a sacred shrine, one of the twelve Jyotirlingas, but also the natural habitat and sanctuary of the Shekru (Indian giant squirrel), Maharashtra's state animal. It said that if trees are felled on a large scale there, the environmental security of all of western Maharashtra will be at risk.

The memorandum lists several dangers and objections. If heavy machinery is run on the steep slopes of the Sahyadris, with blasting and large-scale excavation, there is a strong likelihood of terrible landslides like those at Mahad, Taliye and Irshalwadi recurring in the monsoon. These forests are the main catchment of rivers flowing to Mumbai, Thane, Pune and right up to Marathwada. The crisis of drought and water scarcity is already serious. If the forests are destroyed, the rain cycle will be disrupted and the groundwater level will fall very low.

The organisation said the long forest belt stretching from Bhimashankar to Karjat is a natural corridor for leopards, Shekru, sambar, barking deer and rare wildlife. If the forests are fragmented, wild animals will enter human settlements and conflict will flare up. It said that destroying a centuries-old ecosystem and natural biodiversity and planting saplings elsewhere only on paper cannot make up for a real forest. The memorandum says no concrete information has been made public on where the compensatory afforestation land is or what the survival rate of the saplings is.

The organisation also said that starting work directly, without transparently completing the rehabilitation of, and obtaining the consent of, local tribal communities, farmers and gram sabhas, and without legal public hearings, is illegal and violates the principles of natural justice.

The memorandum makes these demands:

A status quo order should be issued immediately on tree felling and excavation in the Karjat (Sai Dongar) and Bhimashankar areas until all statutory environmental clearances and assessments are complete.

The forest land transfer orders, clearances, hydrological reports and a scientific inventory of the trees to be felled should be made public on the official website and at the gram panchayats concerned.

An expert committee should present an "alternatives study" on how the maximum number of trees can be saved by changing the project design or considering underground options.

A joint committee of the forest department, revenue department, geology experts, environment researchers and local villagers should be formed and an impartial inspection report released.

Issuing a stern warning to the administration, taluka president Salman Bhai Patel and taluka vice-president Kunal Bhau Raut of Tiger Group Bharat, Mahabaleshwar, said: "The administration should take serious and immediate notice of this matter, stop the indiscriminate tree felling in the Sahyadri hills and give a written disclosure of the action taken. If the indiscriminate damage to nature continues, Tiger Group will take to the streets and agitate democratically to protect the local people and the environment. The government and those running the projects concerned will bear full responsibility for this."

There was strong local support when the memorandum was submitted at the Mahabaleshwar forest range office. Present along with Tiger Group Mahabaleshwar taluka vice-president Kunal Bhau Raut were Kishor Bhau Shingre, Sudesh Ghadge, Ashutosh Velange, Rishi Shingre, Rakesh Shingre, Gaurav, Sagar Sathe, Atif Sayyed, Mayur Dave and Sahil Chorge, along with many other workers and villagers in large numbers.