Mumbai govt. fails to comply

Three years after the Maharashtra government was granted a principal approval to utilise 250 hectares of forest land comprising dense mangrove forests for the Navi Mumbai International Airport, the union ministry for environment, forests and climate change (MoEFCC) will appraise the project for a final forest clearance recommendation next week. Forest clearances are granted in two stages and after the stage-I clearance is granted, states have to fulfill certain conditions. According to MoEFCC documents, the Maharashtra government is yet to fulfill all the conditions laid down in the ‘in-principal’ approval.