BJP legislator Narendra Mehta remains defensive about his involvement in the entire scheme of things.
The felling of mangroves has been mandated as illegal by the Bombay High Court since as long back as 2005. But that has not worked as a deterrent for the gradual disappearance of the mangroves in the Kanakia Park region of Mira Road in the Thane suburbs of Mumbai.
With the gradual reduction of greenery in this stretch of land on Mira Road and a building being constructed on one end of the same, questions crop up regarding who is responsible for the rampant destruction of mangroves in broad daylight. Boards of Seven Eleven Construction Private Limited are erected all over the region, and the founder of Seven Eleven Group of companies is local BJP legislator Narendra Mehta.
"Local land mafias are involved with politicians. The local legislator is a corporator who also has several land developers and these people are destroying the mangroves," says Rohit Suvarna, a concerned citizen and a former corporator of the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation.
But the legislator remains defensive about his involvement in the entire scheme of things.
"As far as I am aware, not a single mangrove has been felled there, neither has land been filled...you ask anyone in Mira Bhayander, they will say the company belongs to Narendra Mehta. Many complaints have been lodged against me but when the investigation is done nothing is proved," says Mr Mehta.
"It has been proved time and again, the importance of mangrove in mitigation, measures against storm surges, cyclones and the tsunami also that we witnessed in the Indian Ocean," says Shweta Bhatt, Conservation Officer at Conservation Action Trust, an NGO working for environmental causes.