Eight pictures in environment ministry arsenal will help prove Lavasa violations

Eight photographs of alleged widespread environmental destruction by Lavasa Corporation are part of the Ministry of Environment and Forests’ (MoEF) case in support of its action against the Lavasa lake city project in Pune district.

Submitted by the MoEF to the Bombay high court prior to the three-day MoEF inspection tour (January 5-7), the photographs speak volumes on the scale of construction around the backwaters of the Warasgaon dam.

According to the MoEF’s submission to the high court, the pictures show massive construction on the immediate bank of the Warasgaon water reservoir and destruction of dense forests to facilitate construction.

Other pictures show “blatant hill cutting and stone crushing activity without bothering for environmental clearance and with liberal permission issued by Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB)”.

While two photographs show “reclamation in reservoir directly reducing storage capacity of dam”, one picture has been captioned, “massive hill cutting affecting water streams and destroying tree shelter.”

On January 7, copies of these photographs were attached in a detailed submission to the MoEF inspection team by 75-year-old Pune resident BG Ahuja, a public interest litigant in the Lavasa case before the high court.

Ahuja, who was employed with the Central Engineering Services and has worked on river valley projects for two decades, has raised 10 points in his PIL No. 122/2008 which is being heard along with the Lavasa petition by the high court.

Speaking to DNA last week, Ahuja said the MoEF inspection team led by member-secretary Naresh Dayal had committed a grave error of judgment by giving a clean chit to Lavasa.

Speaking to journalists in Pune, Dayal, on January 7 had declared that there was “no widespread destruction of forests in the Lavasa lake city project” and that “Pune’s water supply won’t be affected by the project”.

Ahuja said that Dayal had contradicted the MoEF which in its submission to the high court had presented pictures showing serious environmental destruction caused by the project.

On the second issue, he said it was beyond the jurisdiction of the MoEF team to comment on Pune’s water supply as this was not assigned to them by the Bombay high court.

“The team was only asked to inspect the site in the context of the norms laid down by the ministry of environment and forests. But without going into the details of these norms, they have discussed points not assigned to them such as supply of water to Pune,” he said.

Ahuja said he has stated in his PIL to the high court with supporting data that after 10 years, the demand for water from the dam will be so high that barely 15% will be released for irrigation downstream.

On the issue of water supply for Lavasa, Ahuja told DNA that had the project been planned in Pune or Mumbai, the Lavasa Corporation “would have been duty-bound to pay water charges at the rate of 2% of the cost of the construction of the project.

“As against this amount running into crores of rupees, they have paid just Rs2.73 lakhs as cost of land and water for a year,” he said.

Driven by the Hindustan Construction Company’s (HCC) Lavasa Corporation, the lake city project has been proposed over 25,000 acres around the backwaters of the Warasgaon dam, 60km from Pune city. It has provoked controversy due to alleged violation of environmental norms and questionable clearances given by the Maharashtra government.