A P E T I T I O N T O T H E P U N E M U N I C I P A L C O R P O R A T I O N

Do not build a road through the last wetland in the city.

The proposed 24-metre link road between Pashan and Sus would cut through 4.1 hectares of the Pashan lake wetland — the last functioning one inside the municipal limit, and the roost for 137 recorded bird species. We are asking for the alignment to be moved 380 metres north, onto land the Corporation already owns.

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11,482
Signatures
4.1 ha
Wetland at risk
137
Bird species recorded
380 m
The alternative

I. THE CASE

The wetland is not a park. It is the flood buffer for 4,200 households downstream in Bavdhan, and the Corporation's own 2023 drainage study says so in paragraph 6.4. Removing 4.1 hectares of it removes roughly 61,000 cubic metres of monsoon storage.

The stated purpose of the road is to cut eleven minutes off the Pashan–Sus commute. The northern alignment achieves nine of those eleven minutes, crosses no wetland, and runs entirely on land already in municipal ownership — which is to say it is also cheaper.

We are not opposing the road. We have never opposed the road. We are asking why the more expensive alignment through a protected wetland is the one on the table.

II. WHAT WE ARE ASKING

  1. Adopt the northern alignment, as set out in the Corporation's own 2019 DP annexure
  2. Publish the comparative cost study for both alignments, which has never been released
  3. Notify the wetland under the Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2017 — Maharashtra has notified four of an identified sixty-one
  4. Hold one public hearing in Marathi, in the ward, before the tender is issued

III. WHO HAS SIGNED

Eleven thousand four hundred and eighty-two people, of whom 6,140 gave a Pune pin code. Among them: the Bombay Natural History Society, four former municipal commissioners, the Bavdhan Residents' Federation, and the ornithologist who compiled the original 1994 species list for this lake.

“I surveyed this wetland for the Corporation in 1994 and again in 2016. The species count has held up through thirty years of the city growing around it. It will not hold up through a road.”

DS

Dr. S. Ranganathan

Ornithologist, Pune

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Signatures are submitted to the Standing Committee in a physical volume before the 14 October meeting. Name and pin code are published; email address is not, and is used only to tell you what happened.

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Who is behind this?+

A residents' group formed in 2021, unaffiliated with any political party. Our accounts are published annually; total spend last year was ₹94,000, most of it on printing and one legal opinion.

Does a petition actually do anything?+

On its own, rarely. Alongside the RTI trail, the 2019 DP annexure and a standing-committee member willing to table it, sometimes. The same coalition moved the Ramnadi culvert alignment in 2023.

Is my data safe?+

Name and pin code go into the submitted volume. Your email stays with us, is never shared, and you can have it deleted by replying to any update. We do not use a third-party petition platform for exactly this reason.

How can I do more than sign?+

Write to your corporator — there is a template and their contact details on the campaign page — and come to the 14 October standing-committee meeting. Ten people in a public gallery changes a room more than a thousand signatures.