Mumbai: Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) authorities will issue consent forms to eligible non-tribal encroachers for relocation and rehabilitation at Shirdon and Kon in Kalyan since the sites are over 50km from their current residences. Many slumdwellers have opposed the plan to shift them that far.“Only those willing to relocate to Kalyan who sign the consent forms will be shifted there,” said Anita Patil, director and chief conservator of forests, SGNP.Officials said the forms will be distributed immediately after Diwali. Mhada has offered 6,300 flats at Shirdon and Kon.Around 12,000 households (both tribal and non-tribal) from Goregaon to Dahisar (south division) and around 5,200 in SGNP’s Yeoor region have been found to be eligible for rehabilitation. Relocation and rehabilitation have been taken up once again as Bombay HC’s 1997 order was not fully implemented. After a contempt petition was filed, the court took up the matter once more and even set up a high-power committee to oversee the task.Based on the 1997 order, SGNP authorities had identified both tribals and non-tribals as encroachers. Govt announced that tribals would be rehabilitated on 90 acres in Aarey Colony, but they refused to be identified as encroachers, pointing out that the area was their home even before it was declared a forest. SGNP authorities said the original SGNP tribals had been relocated to Palghar in the late ‘70s and the early ‘80s but many returned owing to lack of job opportunities there. Tribals held massive protests in Jan this year demanding the implementation of Forest Rights Act, following which govt stayed the eviction of non-tribals and tribals who had already been rehabilitated in phase 1.There has been stiff opposition to relocation to far-flung areas among slumdwellers, too. Former BJP MP Gopal Shetty had even suggested that they be rehabilitated on a 10-acre BMC plot at Kandarpada in Dahisar. Shetty had said residents had demanded that they be paid the difference in price for their huts. “Their argument is that the flat in Kalyan costs Rs 15 lakh while their hut in Mumbai would fetch Rs 50 lakh. They want govt to pay the difference.”A few slumdwellers told TOI that the rehabilitation sites are 14km from Dombivli station and travel costs Rs 60 one way. They pointed out that it was economically unfeasible as their place of work is in the city. “Everyone is asking how they’ll survive after spending Rs 120 and five hours on daily travel,” said Yogesh Bole, one of those who stand to be affected.Manohar Nikam (55) said after having lived in Malad for 30 years, it would be very difficult to start all over again and that too in a place where there are no employment opportunities.Sukeshni Pawar (36) said a site visit arranged by the forest department to Shirdon was cancelled. So, people went on their own to see it. “Some people have decided to opt for it to end the uncertainty. Most of those who are willing to go there came here after 2000,” said Pawar.Former MLC Vidya Chavan from NCP, who has been working among slumdwellers in the Malad-Kandivli belt, said there are at least 6,000 flats meant for project-affected persons in Mumbai, which can be given to the slumdwellers. “Our party workers have identified several PAP flats, including two entire buildings.”Forest officials said SRA has so far offered them 212 PAP flats in the city. Thane Municipal Corporation has offered to accommodate the slumdwellers of Yeoor region in three cluster redevelopment projects currently underway. While two of them are close to SGNP, the third is about 5km from the national park, said Pradip Patil, deputy director, north division, SGNP.
