Maharashtra forest minister pushes plans to save Flamingo Lake as conservation reserve

Navi Mumbai: In a boost to environmentalists’ drive to save DPS Flamingo Lake in Nerul in Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra Forest Minister Ganesh Naik has promised to pursue a government committee recommendation to declare the 30-acre wetland a conservation reserve.

The committee, appointed in the wake of a series of flamingo deaths in the vicinity of the DPS Lake and to suggest ways to preserve the migratory bird habitats, has decided to recommend to the government to declare the waterbody as a conservation reserve.

Environment watchdog NatConnect Foundation director B N Kumar called on Naik on Friday to impress upon him to take up the issue and save the Nerul wetland and presented him a series of suggestions in writing along with a copy of the government committee report that NatConnect obtained via the RTI Act route.

Naik immediately marked the letter to Milind Mhaiskar, Additional Chief Secretary, Forest department. “I shall follow this up,” Naik said.

The committee also asked the City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra Ltd (CIDCO) to clear the choke points and release the intertidal water flow to the lake.

The State Mangrove Cell has also reminded CIDCO recently of the government committee’s report. Yet the city planner has not acted, and the waterbody remains filthy with a lot of muck and moss as a result of which flamingos have been skipping the lake, Navi Mumbai Environment Preservation Society (NMEPS) activist Sandeep Sareen said.

NatConnect also pointed out to Naik that the Navi Mumbai International Airport Limited (NMIAL) has committed in its reports to the Centre that the biodiversity around the project area would be protected.

The mandatory reports submitted to the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MOEFCC) also said CIDCO and NMIAL will take steps to preserve the wetlands as suggested by BNHS.

This put added responsibility on CIDCO to act in the interest of the environment, but the city planner has been in a denial mode, NatConnect said.