MUMBAI, Aug. 1 -- The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) filed an appeal in the Supreme Court (SC) on July 26, challenging a Bombay high court (HC) order to restore Kanjurmarg from a landfill to a mangrove forest, arguing that it has no other similar space for waste disposal. HC had given the direction on the 142-hectare plot, which serves as a dumping ground for 90% of the city's solid waste, in May. In April 2006, HC allowed the land, originally a protected forest, to be used as a dumping ground by the civic body on the assurance that no mangroves would be destroyed in the process. Subsequently, Vanshakti, a non-profit, challenged a December 2009 Maharashtra government notification by the local body de-notifying the entire plot as forest land in contravention of the due process stipulated under the Forest Conservation Act. In March this year, HC had directed the local body to restore a 119.91 hectare patch in the land to its original condition. BMC's recent appeal in SC claims that in July 2008, parts of Mumbai had been notified as protected forests, which included nearly 424.89 acres of land in Kanjurmarg. "Inadvertently, parts of 141.77 hectares which was identified as waste disposal ground, though not a forest area, were also included in the notification," the appeal stated, adding, "the state after noticing the error took steps to rectify it and even made application to HC pointing out the error." The appeal also claims that in 2012, the state government came out with another notification stating that only 118.41 hectares of land would be made available to the local body for dumping, thus leaving an area of 23.26 hectares covered by mangroves which would be excluded from waste disposal ground. The plea claims that in its March order, HC held that the Maharashtra government had no power to rectify its mistake since permission of the Central Government for denotification of the reserved forests was not taken. Calling HC's decision erroneous, the BMC has approached SC to quash and set aside the HC decision. Affronted, petitioner Stalin D, director of Vanashakti, said, "The HC gave its order in May, giving BMC time till three months. The BMC filed the SLP in the Supreme Court on July 26, which was served to us on Thursday, day before the hearing on Friday. How are we supposed to prepare for the case and get our lawyers to Delhi? This was clearly planned and is unethical. We will be present at the hearing virtually, and see how it goes."...