MUMBAI, Sept. 11 -- Even as the Shiv Sena (UBT) clamours for green spaces and the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) to be saved, its own MLA Sunil Prabhu on Wednesday met forest minister Ganesh Naik to ask for a temple two kilometres inside SGNP to be declared a tourist spot and a tarred road to be built leading to it. Prabhu was accompanied by the priest of the temple who controls the trust. In one of his two letters to Naik this year, Prabhu had pointed out that there was a samadhi of Guru Bhaskar Das at the site and that Vageshwari Devi was the gram devi of Kurar village. He also said that the temple ran a goshala there with 100 cows and attached a letter from Mahant Baba Ananddas. The Wagheshwari temple, which is in Ambapada, is deep within the forest and two kilometres from the Malad boundary of SGNP. If tourists or devotees flock to the forest, wildlife will be disturbed and instances of man-animal conflict will go up, warn environmentalists. After the meeting, Naik posted on X: 'Sunilji Prabhu visited Mantralaya regarding the renovation of Shri Wagheshwari Temple in Malad East, beautification of the surrounding area, black-topping of the road, and declaring this area a tourist spot. Instructions have been given to the officers to take all necessary measures to rapidly develop this area and the facilities for devotees in compliance with the rules of the forest department.' Officials said that they would vehemently oppose the proposed move. "There is a high court order in 1997, mandating all encroachments to be removed from SGNP," said an officer working in the national park. "Let them approach the high court or Supreme Court if they want. The temple cannot be legalised, neither can a road be constructed in the forest." When contacted, Sunil Prabhu said, "I wanted this area to be developed as a tourist spot. I had asked Mangal Prabhat Lodha when he was the tourism minister but there was no progress on my request. Hence, I approached Ganesh Naik and he arranged a meeting. Former deputy mayor, Babubhai Bhawanji of the BJP, is also demanding facilities for the temple, but my demand is older."...