The flood havoc in Kolhapur and Sangli districts has killed 54 people and thousands of cattle, besides causing colossal loss of property, farmlands and crops.
Was it the ferocity of nature that caused such a great calamity or did human interference aggravate the situation? RTI documents reveal that tampering of the red and blue line demarcation of the Panchganga River in the Kolhapur Development Plan, due to the pressure of the builder lobby through the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India (CREDAI0, to which the chief minister’s office responded affirmatively, resulted in turning 1250 acres of floodline area, prohibited for any construction, into a concrete maze.
The story goes like this. In a petition related to building encroachments on the banks of the Mula-Mutha rivers of Pune, filed by RTI activist, Sarang Yadwadkar, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) issued directives in 2015 that the water conservation department must prepare a report on the flood lines of flood prone villages and cities. It also ordered that while the study is undertaken, the municipal corporations, municipal councils and gram panchayats should not give approval to any construction in at least 50 meter radius from the flood lines.
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