Case against landowner for illegal hill excavation in Bibvewadi

Pune: The district administration on Saturday registered a case against a landowner in Bibvewadi for illegally excavating and levelling a hill near Gangadham.The district collector's team — including Haveli sub-divisional officer Yashwant Mane and tehsildar Kiran Survase, Pune city tehsildar Suryakant Yeole and others — swung into action to investigate the matter after receiving information about the same. A drone survey revealed the illegal activities.The team stopped the work, seized a car from the site and sought proof of permissions. It came to light that the landowner had not sought clearance from the govt to excavate the land. A notice was sent to the landowner to produce necessary documents."We have registered a complaint with the Bibvewadi police station against the landowner for violating rules. We will respond strongly to any such illegal works. Site visits and inspection of vulnerable regions will be held regularly to prevent activities with strong environmental and land implications. Complaints will be registered against violators," said Pune district collector Jitendra Dudi.Meanwhile, citizens and environmentalists have raised concerns regarding illegal land activities across the city, leading to immense environmental concerns.The Save Hills, Maharashtra group, has been writing to the chief minister and other authorities for the last five years. "We have emphasised the severe consequences of hill cutting and construction on hill tops/hill slopes through several representations. We have cited evidence from govt and non-govt research that directly links such anthropogenic activities to landslides and irreparable environmental damage. We demand that the state govt shows its commitment to enforcing environmental regulations by undertaking detailed drone surveys and comparing them with historical satellite imagery to expose all illegal hill cutting and constructions in the state and take action as per law," said group member Ravindra Sinha.