PUNE: Activists and urban planners in the city have said chief minister Prithviraj Chavan's approval of the reservation of biodiversity parks (BDP), would help to preserve the city's environment.
On Saturday, Chavan approved the reservation as recommended by the Jain committee in 12 of the 23 merged villages in the Pune Municipal Corporation (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Pune-Municipal-Corporation)
(PMC). Former mayor and
Rajya Sabha (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Rajya-Sabha) member Vandana Chavan said decision was a "gift to the future generation". She said BDPs would help the city while dealing with long-term environmental issues. "Global issues such as climate change and pollution are showing their impact on environment. It has become more important for us to conserve natural resources in such conditions," she said.
"The approval for the BDP reservation has given me immense joy," urban planner Anita Benninger-Gokhale (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Anita-Benninger-Gokhale) , said. "It was a long wait, but finally a good decision has been made. It is a relief for the citizens of Pune," she said.
Benninger-Gokhale said citizens will now have to fight to save the water bodies and other natural resources in and around the city. Satish Khot (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Satish-Khot)of the Pune National Society for Clean Cities termed the decision a victory of the people. "We citizens have managed to save our hills by winning this drawn out battle," he said.
"The citizens convinced the authorities that the green cover our hills provide is crucial for the survival of Pune as we know it," he said. The PMC had proposed the reservation as part of the development plan (DP) which was sent to the state government for its approval. The 978.54 hectare reservation is spread over seven hills in the 12 villages. This includes 124.45 hectare of government land and 853.09 hectare of privately owned land.
The government had appointed a committee headed by KB Jain dean of the faculty of doctoral studies, Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology, Ahmedabad, to study the proposal.
The main recommendations of the committee were to make the BDP reservations permanent by giving the land owners transfer of development rights (TDR) in lieu of their land. Those who hand over their land in the first year would be given additional TDR. Around 74 hectare land with old constructions would be excluded from the reservation, the press release issued by the state government said.
