State govt forms committee to review hilltop-hill slope zone and biodiversity park proposals

Pune: State govt has constituted a three-member committee to review the representations, applications and proposals of the civic body or other govt agencies regarding hilltop-hill slope zones and biodiversity park reservations in the current development plan.The committee will comprise the director of urban planning of Maharashtra, joint director of urban planning, Pune department, and the city engineer of Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC). The city engineer would also be its member secretary.The committee, constituted on May 9, is in addition to a six-member study group formed in April to prepare comprehensive development control regulations for the same. This group is headed by retired IAS officer Ramanath Jha, and includes the PMC commissioner, PMRDA metropolitan commissioner, joint director of city planning in Pune, PMC city engineer, and the deputy director of urban design at Pune's Urban Research Unit.The city engineer told TOI that two meetings of the six-member study group have been held and that they sought an extension from state govt to file the regulations draft, extending it from one month to two months. The new committee has been tasked to review the proposals regarding the hilltop-hill slope zones and biodiversity park reservations in the approved development plan of PMC and PMRDA, and submit a detailed report to the study group."The committee will be scrutinising the applications and proposals received at the govt- and municipal-level in relation to the subject, keeping in mind the current situation at the site, development on the site and adjacent areas, and the access road available at the site," said the govt resolution.It will also look at the development potential of the area, proposals in the development plan, and other technical issues. It will submit a report with technical and factual feedback to the study group within a month, the order said.The constitution of the original committee was done after numerous requests and proposals from landowners in these areas urging govt to exclude their plots from the designations, and include them in the residential zone, including a push from local politicians. The development followed an earlier govt decision from Feb 21, 2024, which aimed to consolidate scattered environmental regulations across Maharashtra into a single, cohesive regulatory framework.Over a decade ago, in 2011, former Rajya Sabha MP Vandana Chavan, urban planner Anita Benninger, and many others started a movement called ‘Save Hills, Save Pune', rallying against govt's decision then to allow 4% construction on the hills of Pune mentioned in the urban development plan of the city. They sought for hilltop-hill slope zones to be protected as BDP reservation, with thousands of citizens supporting the cause, including eminent ecologist Madhav Gadgil."We know that factual ground truthing needs historical satellite imagery and land ownership records to establish the locus of the parties. PMC and PMRDA should make this information public so citizens know what is actually brewing under the pretext of such multiple committees," said Ravindra Sinha, a member of Save Hills Maharashtra.