India, March 21 -- Debi Goenka, often termed 'Mumbai's mangrove man', has expressed disappointment at the March 20 decision of the Supreme Court to allow Mumbai's civic body to cut thousands of mangroves for a key road project in the north of the city.

"I am disappointed by the approach of the High Court, Supreme Court and the petitioners in the Supreme Court," Goenka told Down To Earth on the phone from Mumbai. "There were many other issues that should have been raised and can still be raised," he added.

The question, said Goenka, was would it have been possible to minimise the damage to the mangroves by choosing another alignment. Could a coastal road have been substituted by a tunnel or an elevated road (like the Eastern Expressway i...