JOIN US'Flamingo City' Navi Mumbai to conserve wetland as bird destination
In a significant development towards maintaining the Flamingo City’s biodiversity, Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) has decided to conserve the 30-acre wetland DPS Lake at Nerul as a bird destination.
The NMMC also agreed to a suggestion from environmentalists to write to the government and CIDCO to handover the twin wetlands of NRI and TS Chanakya to the civic body for conservation.
Responding to a suggestion from NatConnect Foundation to take over and maintain the wetlands, NMMC Commissioner Abhijit Bangar said the civic body is in talks with BNHS to work together on protecting DPS Lake, one of the flamingo destinations.
NatConnect has earlier submitted a written request to NMMC for conserving the wetlands as per the BNHS research reports to save them as wildlife mitigation measures for the Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) and Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL).
“We have also handed over the BNHS report and copy of Bombay High Court judgement which confirmed the wetland status of NRI-TS Chanakya waterbodies,” NatConnect director B N Kumar said.
BNHS’ recent count shows that as many as 5,000 flamingos landed at DPS Lake. “BNHS is a huge knowledge reservoir on birds and other wildlife and we would love to benefit from it,” Bangar said.
The civic body chief said he would also seek the help of Mangrove Cell for conserving the wetland.
Kumar expressed the hope that the NMMC move would be successful and the wetlands be saved. Kumar has also written to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and Environment Minister Aaditya Thackeray to hasten this process of handing over the NRI and TSC wetlands to the civic body.
CIDCO planned a golf course on these wetlands and the plan has been struck down by the Bombay High Court.
Moreover, the Navi Mumbai International Airport Limited (NMIAL) has in its application for extension of the Environmental Clearance clearly mentioned that the golf course has been cancelled and that the wetlands would be protected as per the BNHS plan.
“The Commissioner said it is the responsibility of all citizens to protect the biodiversity rich property and appealed to the visitors to the wetlands not to disturb the birds. It is wrong for certain selfie enthusiasts to throw stones at the birds to make them fly for photo backdrops, he said and cautioned the visitors not to get too close to birds as they can be trapped in the slush,” a NatConnect statement said.