Funded by: Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) Environmental Improvement Society

Carried out under: Design Cell, Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute for Architecture and Environmental Studies

Project Duration: 2002-2004

Initiation of the project

The Vihar and Powai lakes and their immediate surroundings within the city of Mumbai constitute the project study area. This region which is about 50 sq. km. in size forms the vital lungs of suburban Mumbai, comprising a rich natural landscape bestowed with sweeping valleys, dense vegetation and an intricate pattern of streams and rivers evolving into a ecosystem of considerable intricacy and value to the city. The lakes and their peripheries are under severe threat today due to rapid haphazard development, relaxation of developmental restrictions in no-development zones, increasing population density and improper land use patterns. The pressure of all these factors has already caused catastrophic depletion of the environment, and if allowed to continue will surely wipe out this region in entirety, along with its invaluable eco-reserves, scenic beauty and its paramount importance as a carbon and a source for water supply for the city of Mumbai.

The study of this stressed environment has been undertaken to identify, analyze and investigate into the factors which have led to the deterioration of the lake surrounds and are further threatening their very existence.

Imperatives

Conservation of natural values is usually a function first disrupted by the intensification of human landuse. The situation is exacerbated by the fact that social attitudes towards nature are marked by ignorance, negligence and often downright callousness. The result is that despite nature’s many warnings, the pollution and destruction of the natural environment continues intensively and extensively.

Nature can be considered as an interactive process, responsive to laws, constituting a value system, and offering both intrinsically variable opportunities and limitations to human uses. Present landuse regulations neither recognize natural processes, nor allocate responsibility to the developer. The Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) for projects, today reduced to the simplest terms like height, volume, density, alignment, etc. along with a thorough cost benefit analysis, needs to urgently incorporate resource values, social values and aesthetic values based on natural processes.

Evaluating environmental losses and gains is one important aspect of planning that is increasingly in need of further elaboration.

Many of the problems of the natural environment that challenge human society today have to be looked at from a wider perspective than just their immediate situation, for almost all are rooted in the larger eco-system and biodiversity of their region. There is an urgent demand for an informed and longsighted management of the natural environment and resources, and a need for concerted efforts to radically improve pertinent knowledge, methods and techniques. The science of ecology is broadly defined as the interaction of elements of the landscape. There has been considerable progress in this field in the past decades, all of which should be a valuable aid to the planning of development. A plan purely based on economics is more than likely to undermine a balance between natural principles and manmade interventions.

The entire initial surveys of the study area indicate that it is imperative to develop predictive tools to discriminate between alternative plans and assess them with respect to conservation aims, sustainability and effectiveness.

Investigations into the different types of sustainable and effective land uses have to be carried out. Developing predictive tools to discriminate between these types becomes central to the entire project.

To access whether a specific mosaic of land-uses types is ecologically sustainable, and whether landscape restoration plans are effective and efficient, a thorough knowledge of spatial relations is vital. The integration of the ecology of abiotic and biotic natural and man-made structures in the planning process remains to be explored.

The recently published works of Ian Mcharg, Lars Nyberg, William Honachefsky, Lyle and Roy Winter continue to demonstrate that there is considerable wisdom in planning our landuse around the ecological constraints of the land. Problems of modern landscape management also ask for an ecological resource approach, planning for flows of energy, water nutrients and materials as an integrated part of land use and physical planning.

The study area is the last link to a larger ecosystem of fresh water lakes. Scarcity of fresh water is not only one of the great environmental threats of the future, but already a life-and-death issue in many parts of our country and the world. Accumulated pollution and new and growing environmental problems have made it all the more vital to focus without any delay on efficient protection and care of this basic and invaluable nature resource.

The study has attempted to address the above issues in relation to Mumbai’s lake region, through an indepth examination of the environment with respect to development. The integration of ecological knowledge with spatial planning is further required for sustainable environs. Economic development is inevitable and must be accommodated. But observance of conservation principles and planned growth can avert further destruction and even ensure enhancement of existing natural resources.

The prime objective of the study has been to propose and formulate in detail an integrated development plan for the ecological sustainability and biodiversity of the lakes and their surrounds.

The study justifies the need for an overall command centre to be formulated for the lake region. The legislative requirements have been deliberated and a legal framework for the Planning policy has been developed on the basis of the assessment of the various aspects of the lake region. The study has established the baseline conditions in terms of conserving the environmental aspects and has identified mitigation measures, which can be incorporated into the scheme to reduce the impact on the lake ecology.