Current Rehabilitation Status over the Issues of Displacement at Sanjay Gandhi National Park, Mumbai: Some Observations

Abstract

The Present Status Report published by the Forest Department, Maharashtra in June, 2011 reveals the stages of resettlement to be provided to the slum dwellers settled within Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) Mumbai in two different phases and also reveals the number of pending rehabilitations to be made, in addition to the park conservation measures taken therein. The present study, on the basis of a survey conducted during March-May 2013 in SGNP, is a comment on the Report published, which intends to state that the proposed stages of rehabilitation are truly derisory and insufficient. The final comments represent the overall picture of the current issues of acute marginalization, alienation of livelihood and future uncertainty of the migrant population settled therein resulting from the fictitious rehabilitation measures and depleting livelihood opportunities of which they are doomed victims.