Green activist Shyam Chainani (68), founder of the Bombay Environmental Action Group (BEAG), who succumbed to cancer in Mumbai on Saturday night, managed to make a pan-India impact on ecological conservation.
Environmental activists and members of BEAG
remembered Chainani as the ‘Father of heritage conservation in India’ and as a man who impacted the protection of 64 cantonment towns across India. He was also remembered for initiating the stipulation of the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) rules, which provided protection to the 8,000-km coastline in India.
Speaking to DNA, Gautam Patel, senior Bombay high court lawyer and BEAG advisory board member said, “Chainani was a one-man army. If it were not for him, the 8,000-km coastline would have been in grave danger. Thanks to his relentless efforts of over 10 years, the government agreed to incorporate the CRZ rules, which have provided critical protection to an otherwise
unprotected coastline.”
According to Patel, Chainani undertook the ‘colossal job’ of following up with the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) and securing the eco-sensitive zone status for the hill stations of Mahabaleshwar, Panchgani and Matheran.
“This was almost a revolutionary work. It was completely unprecedented. Chainani made multiple trips to Delhi to achieve this success,” he said.
Though Chainani lived in Mumbai, he travelled across India and brought in restrictions on building activities in cantonment areas.
Pune-based lawyer Netraprakash Bhog told DNA that the relentless research of Chainani in the early 80s resulted in new floor space index (FSI) by-laws being incorporated by an act of parliament in 1986.
This resulted in the revised 0.5 FSI for residential areas and 1 FSI for commercial establishments in cantonments.
Dev Mehta, former Pune municipal commissioner and chairman of Mahabaleshwar and Panchgani high-level monitoring committee told DNA on Sunday, “Chainani was a selfless crusader for the cause of environmental and heritage conservation. He was a practical man who methodically drafted rules and regulations to govern heritage conservation.”
