Navi Mumbai: The Union government’s in-principle clearance for diversion of 237.086 hectares of forest land and the felling of nearly 40,000 trees for the proposed Vadhavan Port connectivity corridor has triggered strong opposition from environmentalists, who warned of irreversible ecological damage and escalation in wildlife-human conflict in the ecologically sensitive Dahanu-Palghar region.
The clearance covers an eight-lane highway and railway corridor linking the upcoming Rs 76,220-crore Vadhavan Port in Palghar district with Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPA). 38,905 trees, including nearly 1,600 mangroves, will be felled for the project, according to official records. Because of rapid destruction of greenery, we are already witnessing rising temperatures and worsening air quality.
NatConnect Foundation director B N Kumar termed the project “one of the biggest assaults” on green cover in the region in recent years. Such projects will only deepen the environmental crisis,” he said. Environmentalist Nandakumar Pawar, director of Sagar Shakti, said authorities should have explored alternative alignments and taken local stakeholders into confidence before finalising the route. Alternative alignments and mitigation measures should have been discussed transparently before granting approvals,” he said, demanding a review of the clearance process.
“The highway and railway corridor will stand on massive concrete pillars replacing densenatural canopy. “We are not against development, but it must be balanced with nature.
The selected alignment, called Option-II, was chosen because it allegedly caused the “minimum impact” on mangroves and local settlements, despite still requiring diversion of 237 hectares of forest land. “People may have to wait 10 to 15 years before freshly planted saplings begin providing even a fraction of the ecological benefits of the trees being destroyed today,” green groups said. The Centre has justified the project as critical infrastructure under the Sagarmala programme for improving cargo evacuation from the proposed deep-draft port. Government documents state that existing two-lane roads in the region pass through built-up areas and lack the capacity to safely handle heavy freight traffic. However, the government’s own alignment analysis acknowledges that all proposed routes cut through ecologically sensitive stretches of Dahanu taluka and forest landscapes. The clearance imposes several mitigation measures, including wildlife underpasses, fencing to guide animal movement, restrictions on dumping debris in forests and safeguards for the Surya river flow. Environmentalists, however, questioned whether compensatory plantations could ever replace mature forests and mangrove ecosystems that evolved over decades.