Mumbai just got greener and bigger by 20%

                                                                              Local Press Co Snippet

1. A patch of virgin land, first detected by satellites in 2009, has now been officially added to the geographical limits of Mumbai.

2. The land mass, roughly 1,496 hectares or 14.9 sq.km in size, is adjoining the eastern coast from Airoli to Sewri.

3. With the addition, Mumbai’s geographical area has gone up from 67.79 sq.km to 82.75 sq.km. Also, since the new area is all forest, city’s mangrove cover has risen from 4,663 hectares to 6,160 hectares.

4. BMC has marked the new addition as ‘Natural Area’ implying that no construction can ever take place there.

5. City planners believe the new land was formed through a sedimentation process, but they can only be certain once BMC has completed their ecological study.