Shruti and Sunil Agarwal have been fighting to save 80 hectares of wetlands in Navi Mumbai that are home to thousands of flamingos.
The wetlands that lie in NRI Complex in Navi Mumbai, were proposed to be converted into a golf course and residential complex. But in 2018, based on their petition, the Bombay High Court quashed a notification to this effect. The forest department now plans to declare the area a conservation reserve but is facing resistance from within the government.
While these wetlands constitute a small percentage of the area of Navi Mumbai, they support more than a hundred species of birds, including many migratory species.
Navi Mumbai’s changing land use has contributed to the current geography of its wetlands. Till the 1970s, the area was covered with large expanses of salt pans and paddy fields, according to a @bombaynaturalhistorysociety report. Tide gates regulated tidal water for agriculture, salt farming and fishing, but these traditional practices declined by the 1980s. Once the region started to get developed into a metropolitan area, increasing land prices, changing hydrology and economy of this region due to construction activities, government policies and changing lifestyles could have made people abandon farming and fishing. This might have brought transformation in this region - new wetlands were formed naturally in abandoned salt pans and paddy fields and artificially by soil excavation - existing wetlands became shallow or disappeared due to heavy siltation and landfilling and along with uncultivated and unmanaged lands, they were replaced by prolific growth of mangroves and scrubs, said the BNHS report.
“People point out to us that where we are living right now also used to be a wetland before. I say to them, “Alright, but does that mean we let the last of wetlands also be destroyed?” Just because it happened once doesn’t mean we should let it happen again,” says Shruti.
Read more about the #WetlandChampions
Story by Tanvi Deshpande. Illustration by @mandale_thegirlwithideas
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