The Maharashtra government has been directed by the Bombay High Court on October 14 to issue a circular to all civic bodies to ensure that no construction or reclamation is permitted on wetlands in Maharashtra. A division bench of Justice VM Kanade and Justice SC Gupte also directed the government to state if it will adopt the Centre's wetland atlas as its brief document.
The court's direction came in the wake of a PIL by NGO Vanshakti regarding the non-implementation of the Wetlands Rules 2010 in Maharashtra. Any land adjoining a water body, which gives a distinct eco-system, is a wetland—it could be both coastal or inland and include mangroves, marshes, swamps among others.
Vanshakti argued that the state has neither identified wetlands in Maharashtra in its brief document nor has it not constituted the Wetlands Authority.