Happy to inform you all that promptly responding to an environment group’s digital agitation to conserve the Panje Wetland in Uran across Mumbai harbour as a Biodiversity Park, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has directed the Forest and Urban Development Departments to take this suggestion forward.

As you are aware, we launched the online campaign seeking to protect and conserve the 300-hectare Panje wetland as an MMR Biodiversity Park and save the destination for over 150,000 birds and the traditional source of survival for the fishing community as a World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) gift.

The State Mangrove Foundation has earlier expressed its interest in conserving Panje, along with five other wetlands, following a proposal by Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) to make them part of the Thane Creek Flamingo Sanctuary Plan.

Now that the CM has responded in less than 48 hours to our request and online posts, we expect the authorities to move and act.

This is not an auto response from the CMO as the mail has been specifically marked to Forest Secretary B.Venugopal Reddy and Principal Secretary Urban Development-1 Bhushan Gagrani, NatConnect said.

It will be an environmental disaster of a Himalayan scale if we kill this beautiful wetland despite the concerns from all across, except the vested interests.

May we point out that Panje wetland has been marked a a holding pond as part of flood control measures for the region.

Panje Wetland as #MMRbiodoversityPark will be an ideal WBMD gift for the people of Mumbai and MMR,  because, you will agree with us that, Birds are Ambassadors of Environment.

WMBD is an annual awareness-raising campaign highlighting the need for the conservation of migratory birds and their habitats and the main days for the international celebrations are the second Saturday in May and in October. The WMBD 2021 theme is “Sing, Fly, Soar – Like a Bird!”.