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The Bombay High Court has directed the Mumbai Suburban district administration to remove encroachments around the Charkop natural pond in Kandivali (West) without showing favour to any person, and to complete the exercise within six weeks after 30 September 2026. The order came after the district collector filed an affidavit outlining joint inspections and statutory notices issued to encroachers. The court, which had earlier warned it could seek the collector's transfer over delayed action, said it would closely monitor compliance to ensure the process was not reduced to a mere formality.
The Bombay High Court has directed the Mumbai Suburban district administration to remove encroachments around a natural pond in Charkop, Kandivali (West), "without showing any favour to any person," making clear that the exercise must proceed independently of influence regardless of the standing of those affected. A Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Ravindra Ghuge and Justice Gautam Ankhad passed the direction while hearing a petition filed by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in 2021, seeking permission to undertake conservation and beautification works at the pond.
The bench said it would closely monitor the progress of the encroachment removal exercise, cautioning the administration that the affidavit filed by the district collector should not turn out to be "an eyewash to the court." According to the affidavit, the district administration has carried out joint inspections along with physical verification, identification and classification of structures around the pond, and has issued statutory notices to encroachers. The collector assured the court that structures found legally liable for removal, and not protected by any statutory restriction, would be cleared, with the exercise to be completed within six weeks starting after 30 September 2026. Officials also told the court that the administration would coordinate with the BMC, the Slum Rehabilitation Authority, the Forest Department, the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority, and revenue authorities to ensure compliance with the court's directions.
The order marks the latest step in a case that has seen the court repeatedly press the administration for concrete action rather than correspondence. During an earlier hearing this month, the bench had come down heavily on the Mumbai Suburban collector for failing to act against the encroachments, questioning what had been done in the three weeks since its previous directions and stating that it was not interested in letters exchanged between officials but wanted to see results on the ground. The court had at that stage indicated it could seek the transfer of the collector and the appointment of a more efficient officer if its directions continued to go unimplemented, though it subsequently acknowledged "amazing improvement" after the BMC placed photographs showing that the pond itself had been cleaned.
The dispute traces back to a July hearing, when the court had directed the collector to remove encroachments around the pond, observing that illegal structures and indiscriminate dumping of garbage were the two principal reasons behind the water body's deteriorating condition and the damage being caused to nearby mangroves. The bench had reasoned that once encroachments were cleared and dumping stopped, saline water would naturally resume flowing into the pond as it had before the illegal occupation began. At that hearing, the BMC's counsel clarified that the corporation itself was not undertaking large-scale beautification, but was limited to constructing a pathway and undertaking plantation work, while the removal of encroachments remained the statutory responsibility of the district collector, with the BMC extending assistance for a garbage-clearance drive.
The pond falls within the 50-metre buffer zone of surrounding mangroves, and the BMC's proposed conservation project, which includes construction of a gabion wall to protect the water body, requires High Court approval on that account. The civic body has already secured clearances for the plan from the Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority, the Mangrove Cell, and the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority, though the Bombay Environmental Action Group has separately opposed the gabion wall, arguing it could obstruct the natural movement of water and further affect the mangrove ecosystem. With encroachment removal now bound by a defined timeline, the case is expected to return before the court for continued monitoring of compliance in the coming weeks.
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