Mumbaikars Choose Mangroves Over Sewage Plant, Join Hands To Save Them!

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In March 2018, Mumbai newspapers carried a report saying that the State forest department has given its nod allowing the BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation) to transplant close to 87 acres of mangrove from Malad to Thane, to make way for the Malad Sewage Treatment Plant (STP). The project is expected to cost Rs 2,000 crore.

This sent shock waves among environmentalists and citizens alike. Mumbai has been facing the wrath of monsoon floods year after year. People the world over have realised that the more one depletes mangroves, the more unsafe the adjacent land becomes.

In the past, mangroves on a large stretch of Mumbai’s coastal land have been acting as a buffer against the natural calamity. But in the guise of development, this precious eco-system is getting eroded.

The vast stretch of mangroves at Charkop, Mumbai.                                                                             

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Because of our long stretch of mangroves, the tsunami that affected Chennai coastal line in 2004 or even the recent cyclone Ockhi in 2017 which destroyed many coastal areas in South India and Srilanka, didn’t affect us. We have decided that we won’t allow anyone to destroy our mangroves,” state Shweta, Gautami, and Jhanvi Hule, the fisherwomen of Vengurla, Sawantwadi in Maharashtra who have formed a Swamini self-help group of women. They operate a mangrove safari for visitors of the area and fiercely protect their mangroves.

But Mumbai citizens, busy in their daily struggles, seem to have become apathetic to this announcement by the BMC.

“No doubt treatment of sewage is one of the most urgent needs of this burgeoning metro. But relocating mangroves to reclaim the land isn’t the solution at all, as the existing sewage plants in different parts of the city aren’t functioning to even 50% of their capacity. But we will keep an eye on the relocation process to see how successful it will be. Till now, the relocation of the mangrove hasn’t been done properly,” says a very concerned Debi Goenka, an environmentalist and founder member of CAT (Conservation Action Trust). Goenka has led many campaigns to protect the natural environment and to save mangroves.

The importance of mangroves, a large group of trees and shrubs habituating the coastal inter-tidal zones, is recognised by UNESCO. To propagate the urgent necessity of saving this innocuous cluster of trees, since 2015, July 28th is being observed as the International Day for the Conservation of the Mangrove Ecosystem.

The world body underlining the importance of mangrove ecosystem states, “Mangroves are a unique, special and vulnerable ecosystem, providing by virtue of their existence, biomass and productivity, substantial benefits to human beings, providing forestry, fishery goods and services as well as contributing to the protection of the coastline and being particularly relevant in terms of mitigation of the effects of climate change and food security for local communities.”

Mangroves found in the tropical regions are found in 123 nations and territories. Finding mangrove forests is very rare. The world’s biggest mangrove forest is at Sundarbans, on the delta of river Ganga between West Bengal and Bangladesh.

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