Forest officials have put up a beat chowky and issued eviction notices to over 206 slum dwellers, who set up their homes on forest lands in Rabale. Officials are also patrolling the landslide-prone area and warning residents against venturing there.
But residents are reluctant to move out. We have been here for almost 20 years when the quarry activities began. Most of us work in that quarry, said Ramchandra Dhulup, a resident of Adivasipada. Taking note of the Malin landslides, the forest department is set to erect a fence on a stone-based foundation to prevent loose soil from being eroded. Also, they have put up a megaphone announcement system. The makeshift wall will be a deterrent to further encroachment, said I S Kambli, range forest officer, Navi Mumbai in-charge.
The patrolling team has been armed with a rescue van to attend to contingencies in the slums near the quarries at Chinchwali, Adivasipada and Sambhaji Nagar. These slums had illegally come up here over a decade ago. We are putting up boards to warn residents of any misadventure on the lines of Malin. Eight more spots, along the Parsik range, from Kharegaon to Rabale have been identified as landslide pockets, said P K Singh, chief conservator of forests, Thane.
