With chief minister (CM) Uddhav Thackeray announcing a stay on the Metro-3 car shed construction work at Aarey Colony in Mumbai on Friday, environmentalists in Navi Mumbai are now hoping that he will take pro-environment decisions in the state.
Thanking the CM for his decision on the car shed, activists have now requested him to declare Panje wetlands in Uran and Talawe wetlands in Nerul as bird sanctuaries. The activists said that they would soon start a social media campaign to give momentum to their demand.
“The earlier government had no regard for the environment. But we have positive hopes from the new government. We will launch a ‘Tweetathon’, urging the CM to declare the two wetlands as bird sanctuaries,” said Srujan Tapkire, 40, an environmentalist from Navi Mumbai.
Aishwarya Sridhar, 23, is a photographer and environmentalist from Navi Mumbai. She has made a documentary on the different bird species at Panje and why it is important to protect the wetlands.
“Every year in October, we get to see a variety of birds such as the Curlew sandpipers, Eurasian curlew, Pied avocet and Baya weaver. Nature photographers make a beeline to capture the winged-beauties. The wetlands are rich with flora and fauna and thus, it is essential to protect them. I have tried to highlight the rich biodiversity of the wetlands in my documentary and even met the local authorities, demanding that they declare Talawe a bird sanctuary. The CM’s sensitive decision on Aarey has given us hopes that he will respond positively to our demand too.”
{{/usCountry}}“Every year in October, we get to see a variety of birds such as the Curlew sandpipers, Eurasian curlew, Pied avocet and Baya weaver. Nature photographers make a beeline to capture the winged-beauties. The wetlands are rich with flora and fauna and thus, it is essential to protect them. I have tried to highlight the rich biodiversity of the wetlands in my documentary and even met the local authorities, demanding that they declare Talawe a bird sanctuary. The CM’s sensitive decision on Aarey has given us hopes that he will respond positively to our demand too.”
{{/usCountry}}Uran is among the last surviving mangrove patches in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and is under the 10-km radius of the proposed Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA).
The wetlands face a threat owing to the construction activities for the airport. Residents and activists are keeping an eye on those dumping debris at the wetlands.
Nand Kumar Pawar, an environmentalist who has been working to save the wetlands across the MMR, said, “We have been asking the Raigad Collector and the City And Industrial Development Corporation (Cidco) to declare Panje wetland a bird sanctuary. However, despite writing several letters to them, we are yet to receive positive news on it. As our new CM seems to be sensitive towards environmental issues and is even ready to investigate the violations, I’d like to appeal to him to declare Panje a bird sanctuary and save the homes of the birds.”
At Talawe, residents fear that the wetlands is under threat owing to the rapid construction in the area.
Sunil Agarwal, 56, an environmentalist from NRI complex, has been working to save Talawe wetlands for the past four years.
He said, “This is a protected wetland. The previous government in the state had proposed to declare the wetland a bird sanctuary but it was not done. We hope that the new government takes steps in the positive direction,” he said.