SGNP borivali - building an University inside ,
What’s happening to Sanjay Gandhi National Park is genuinely worrying. Mumbai is already gasping for breathable space, and this forest is one of the city’s last surviving lungs. Every few years, another “development” proposal appears, first roads cutting through protected areas, then commercial activity, now talks of a university campus inside the park itself. And that’s how ecological destruction begins: not in one giant step, but in small “exceptions” that slowly become permanent.
A university inside a national park is not just about constructing one building. It means roads, hostels, parking lots, water pipelines, electricity infrastructure, playgrounds, staff quarters, food courts, traffic movement, and constant human pressure on a fragile ecosystem. Even if the initial proposal sounds limited, expansion is inevitable. Twenty or thirty acres today becomes much more tomorrow.
Mumbai has already lost large stretches of mangroves and green cover to unchecked urbanisation. If protected forests also start getting fragmented, the city will pay the price through rising heat, flooding, worsening air quality, and destruction of wildlife corridors. Leopards, deer, birds, reptiles, all of them depend on uninterrupted forest space. Once concrete enters, the damage is rarely reversible.
Then there’s the contradiction of conservation policies themselves. On one hand, authorities speak about protecting biodiversity and restricting ordinary public access in the name of preservation. On the other hand, proposals emerge for large scale construction projects inside the same protected zone. Charging excessive entry fees for citizens while allowing institutional development inside the park sends the wrong message entirely.
Changing the park’s name is irrelevant. Call it whatever you want, the real issue is preserving what the park actually is: a protected forest ecosystem inside one of the world’s most densely populated cities. Mumbai does not need more concrete inside its last green sanctuary. It needs stronger protection for it.
A university inside a national park is not just about constructing one building. It means roads, hostels, parking lots, water pipelines, electricity infrastructure, playgrounds, staff quarters, food courts, traffic movement, and constant human pressure on a fragile ecosystem. Even if the initial proposal sounds limited, expansion is inevitable. Twenty or thirty acres today becomes much more tomorrow.
Mumbai has already lost large stretches of mangroves and green cover to unchecked urbanisation. If protected forests also start getting fragmented, the city will pay the price through rising heat, flooding, worsening air quality, and destruction of wildlife corridors. Leopards, deer, birds, reptiles, all of them depend on uninterrupted forest space. Once concrete enters, the damage is rarely reversible.
Then there’s the contradiction of conservation policies themselves. On one hand, authorities speak about protecting biodiversity and restricting ordinary public access in the name of preservation. On the other hand, proposals emerge for large scale construction projects inside the same protected zone. Charging excessive entry fees for citizens while allowing institutional development inside the park sends the wrong message entirely.
Changing the park’s name is irrelevant. Call it whatever you want, the real issue is preserving what the park actually is: a protected forest ecosystem inside one of the world’s most densely populated cities. Mumbai does not need more concrete inside its last green sanctuary. It needs stronger protection for it.
8
Patrick Anand
Baby Cockroach · 50 pts
Related Issues
Mela 4 views विकास या विनाश 11 views Number of trees cut down 7 views Ban of any kind of political hoardings 7 views