Maharashtra CM steps in to check plaint on Parsik Hill landslides in Navi Mumbai

NAVI MUMBAI: Responding to environmentalists’ and local people’s concerns over threats of landslides at the residential part of the Parsik Hill, Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde has directed the Urban Development Department to look into the issue.


The residential side of the Parsik Hill in Navi Mumbai is experiencing lose soil along the slope, with the onset of the monsoon, NatConnect Foundation said in its complaint to the CM and the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MOEFCC).

Soil from the eastern slope, facing Cidco headquarters, is coming down and the the road below is littered with the soil sliding from the hill, the environmental group said.

"If this (lose soil) persists, it could pose danger to the people and properties on top of the hill," NatConnect director B N Kumar said.

"The CMO marked its email specifically to Dr Govind Raj, principal secretary of Urban Development-2 and we are following up with him,” Kumar said.

Cidco allotted about 200 plots on top of the hill of which as many as 100 have already developed with people living there, Parsik Hill Resident Association president Jayant Thakur said.

"The retention wall built by Cidco on the hill has begun to cave in and there are gaps in some places," Vishnu Joshi of Parsik Greens said. The wall needs to be reinforced immediately, he added.

The wall appeared to have been broken by encroachers in some places and that needs to be plugged urgently, Joshi said.

Kumar recalled that a recent IIT report commissioned by a private builder cautioned that a certain area of the soil on the eastern slope is loose and is prone to the dangers of landslides.


Moreover, NatConnect pointed out that lush green cover on the hill slope has been destroyed by vested interests and that could be causing the problem.

The NGO recalled that a landslide exactly a year ago damaged the NMMC’s water supply monitoring centre below the hill and voices of concern over the hill’s safety were raised then.