Navi Mumbai: Environmentalists urged the Maharashtra govt to revive the long-abandoned eco-tourism project at the Pandavkada waterfall in the Kharghar node amid a rise in drowning accidents in and around the site.Two youngsters were reported to have drowned in separate incidents on Friday and Saturday at the waterfall, one of Navi Mumbai’s best-known natural landmarks in the Kharghar hills that draws thousands of monsoon visitors every year. The Kharghar fire brigade and police teams conducted a search operation to track the two youngsters missing at the Pandavkada waterfall, Kharghar, and they were feared to have drowned.A Taloja resident, Mohammed Mobshir Mohammed Shahid (20), was missing since Friday evening and a collegian, Shannon Kini (19), from Santacruz, was missing from Saturday after entering the gorge of the waterfall. Five on a picnic had reached the waterfall on Friday and two collegians on Saturday, defying the prohibitory orders.Social activists said scientific management rather than blanket prohibitory orders was needed to prevent recurring loss of life at the iconic site. They said continued access via multiple unofficial and treacherous routes led to repeated tragedies despite a ban, barricades and police deployment.The environmentalists said the limits of an enforcement-only approach were exposed again by the latest drowning cases, and said the groundwork for a managed solution already existed because the Forest Department initiated an eco-tourism project at Pandavkada in 2014 and constructed a compound wall, ticket counter and changing room before the initiative was abruptly abandoned. The unfinished infrastructure remains unused while rescue operations and drowning incidents occur almost every monsoon. Environmentalists have called on the state govt to establish a coordinated institutional framework involving the Forest Department, CIDCO, Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation, Panvel civic body, police, fire services, the Bombay Natural History Society and local environmental groups to prepare and implement a comprehensive eco-tourism, visitor safety and water conservation plan for the Kharghar hill range. “The administration cannot wish away people’s desire to experience nature,” said Jyoti Nadkarni, Director of SwarnSrishti Habitat Restorer Foundation. “Pandavkada has become a magnet for monsoon visitors despite the ban. Instead of allowing people to slip into dangerous, unmonitored areas, the government should create a professionally managed eco-tourism destination with strict safety protocols. Saving lives and protecting nature must go hand in hand,” she said.NatConnect Foundation Director B N Kumar said the Kharghar-Belapur hill range, extending towards Taloja, offered an opportunity to create one of Maharashtra’s finest urban eco-tourism destinations. “Navi Mumbai is uniquely endowed with hills, waterfalls, mangroves, wetlands, creeks and flamingo habitats. With proper planning, Pandavkada can become a national model for safe nature tourism and climate resilience instead of making headlines every monsoon for tragic drownings,” Kumar said.The activists said the govt must replace reactive rescue operations with proactive ecological planning, and that a well-managed eco-tourism zone could enhance visitor safety, conserve biodiversity, generate local livelihoods and showcase Navi Mumbai’s natural heritage.Meanwhile, 14 monsoon revellers from Mumbai were sent back before the water levels swelled in a discharge channel near the Adoshi waterfall, off the Mumbai-Pune expressway, on Sunday morning. Khopoli police beat marshal constable Shubham Jadhav said, “The youths had arrived in their vehicles but were asked to leave due to heavy rainfall. They had moved more than 5km from the E-way. ” A Dharavi teenager Ashraf Shaikh (17) on a picnic with his friends was drowned on June 30 in a pond at the foothills of the Kharghar hills behind the Bharati Vidyapeeth.
