Pune: After more than a decade, in a bid to save the green cover of the city, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has finally realised the need to secure the Bio-Diversity Park (BDP) reserved area. The PMC has so far sent three letters to the district administration for permission to start activities to protect the ecosystem of this land, to stop mining in this area and to load bio-diversity park (BDP) reservations onto the 7/12 extracts of land owners and to prevent sale of lands within the BDP area.
The PMC has shared maps and detailed information of BDP reserved areas with survey numbers to district administration.
Pune city is surrounded by a range of hills like Dive, Katraj Ghat, Panchgaon, Fergusson, Parvati Hill, Chatuhshrungi Hill and Vetal Hill. The areas are covered with slums and unauthorised construction on these areas. It is spread over seven hills in the 12 merged village out of 23 merged villages. This includes 124.45 hectares government land and 853.09 hectares privately owned land.
The BDP zone is spread over 978 hectares of land on the hills around Pune. In 2005, the PMC proposed the BDP demarcation while preparing the Development Plan for 23 merged villages.
The plan included city hills such as Baner, Bavdhan, Katraj, Kondhwa, Bibvewadi and Sinhagad Road among others. Of the 978 hectares, 124 hectares is government-owned and the remaining 854 hectares is owned by private parties.
In 2014, the State Government clearly stated that it is the responsibility of the PMC to protect the Bio-Diversity Park (BDP) zone. But, due to lack of funds and manpower, the PMC has done nothing to stop encroachments there.
Now, the Municipal Commissioner has taken a decision to take some constructive steps to stop encroachments on
Bio-Diversity Park reserved areas.
Municipal Commissioner Saurabh Rao has written three letters to the district administration to help the PMC to stop
encroachments.
Rao said, “It is the duty of the corporation to save green cover of the city. The PMC has already reserved 978 hectares of land. The maximum Bio-Diversity Park lands have private ownership. So, we are facing challenges to stop transactions of lands in order to stop illegal constructions. People construct slums on reserved lands and create pressure on government machinery to stop action against them. So, we have sent a letter to District Collector Naval Kishor Ram and requested him to put the stamp of ‘No transaction’ on 7x12 extract of lands under BDP reserved land.”
Rao added, “In the second letter we have sought permission to stop mining in BDP reserved land and also to stop any illegal activity. We have requested them to allow us to make some environment related work to secure green cover. As there is some land which belongs to the government. The process has not been completed to hand over government land to the PMC till date. So, we want working permission from District collector. We have handed over all the necessary documents of BDP reserved areas with survey numbers and maps.”
BDP areas in hectares
- Baner-Balewadi (89.07)
- Bavdhan-Kothrud (279.82)
- Warje-Shivane (166.18)
- Hingne-Wadgaon Dhayari (118.42)
- Dhankawadi-Ambegaon (20.05)
- Katraj (216.30)
- Kondhwa-Undri (45.73)
- Mohammadwadi-Hadapsar (42.94)
