In his first janta durbar, Prakash Javadekar discussed illegal construction on the city's hills and the challenge of controlling environmental damage.

Laying emphasis on wider participation of people for effective protection of the environment, Union Minister of State for environment, forests and climate change, Prakash Javadekar, held his first janta darbar on Sunday in the city. Saying that environment conservation can go hand-in-hand with development, Javadekar met tekdi walkers at Hanuman tekdi and interacted with a group of environmentally conscious people.

Issues discussed included rampant construction taking place on adjoining areas of the hills, high prevalence of visitors drinking alcohol and littering the area, and the growing epidemic of stray dogs threatening the peacock population, which have been the long-standing grouse of citizens.

Pointing out that rapid urbanisation has put the hills under tremendous pressure, citizens and environmentalists who attended the darbar recalled the Shindewadi tragedy of June 6, 2012, in which a woman and and her daughter were swept away in a flood-like situation at the foothills of Katraj, believed to be caused due to illegal constructions among other reasons. Skirting the question on tackling illegal construction on the city's hills, Javadekar said, "A lot of damage has already been done, controlling this damage and resolving it is a challenging task."

Raising the issue of broken fences, Ramesh Hirve, a regular tekdi walker who has been feeding the peacocks in that area for the last 25 years, said, "The fence around the foothills is in bad condition and need to be repaired urgently. The stray dogs that enter through the broken fence pose a threat to peacocks that roam the area."

Lack of fencing has also aggravated the problem of miscreants who frequent the hills to drink alcohol and litter the area with empty bottles. Alluding to the porous India-Bangladesh border, which makes it easy for smugglers and deportees to return, Javadekar said, "The issue of fencing is like the Bangladesh border where 90 per cent of the work is done, but the 10 per cent that remains is causing a problem.

We will look into the matter and post guards in the area." Referring to tekdis as the green lungs of the city, Javadekar said, "Environment and development are not mutually exclusive. We have started a section on our official website for people to post suggestions, and we will look into their complaints and suggestions."

NEW APP LAUNCHED

At the meet, a new application called 'Pranimitra' was launched, developed by Indian Herpetological Society (IHS), Autinno Enterprises and Dr Aniruddha Joshi, Assistant Professor, Department of Management Sciences, University of Pune. The application will help in reporting sightings of different species of snakes, birds, mammals and amphibians. The sighting will then be reported to the IHS and Forest department. Currently developed only for Maharashtra, the application will later be extended to the rest of the country.

"As part of environmental and ecological concerns, it has become immensely important to know and track the different species around us. It is also important to rescue and rehabilitate these wild animals, which are facing problems because of growing urbanisation and deforestation. This application is going to help to take statistical census of wild animals and will provide the contacts of rescuers," said Joshi.

"The data this app will generate will help in studies and changing patterns of sightings. It is a huge step in wildlife conservation," said Neelimkumar Khaire, chairman of IHS.