Coastal road: ‘Translocated from Haji Ali, corals surviving in Navy Nagar’

A total of 329 coral colonies -- belonging to the species ‘pseudosiderastrea tayamai’ -- are surviving in relatively undisturbed conditions at their new habitat in Navy Nagar, Colaba, officials in the forest department’s mangrove cell and the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) said on Wednesday, after undertaking an inspection of the site

A total of 329 coral colonies -- belonging to the species ‘pseudosiderastrea tayamai’ -- are surviving in relatively undisturbed conditions at their new habitat in Navy Nagar, Colaba, officials in the forest department’s mangrove cell and the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) said on Wednesday, after undertaking an inspection of the site.

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The coral colonies had been translocated after being retrieved from 194 rock boulders in the intertidal zone at Haji Ali to Navy Nagar, in November 2020, as they were getting in the way of the coastal road alignment that will connect Princess Street near Marine Lines to Worli. This stretch of the coastal road is expected to be 10.5-km-long when finished.

Neenu Somraj, deputy conservator of forests, mangrove cell, said, “We have inspected the corals along with officials from the National Institute of Oceanography, who had translocated the colonies and are conducting monthly inspections. The area is less polluted than Haji Ali and as it is in a high security zone, the area is not as disturbed either. There is a rich variety of intertidal life in the region already, and all shifted corals are intact.”

Somraj said the NIO, at the instruction of the courts, has been conducting monthly visits to inspect the translocated corals (which are protected under Schedule II of the Wildlife Protection Act). “They have also been submitting quarterly reports directly to the BMC, but we have told them that the mangrove cell also requires these reports. We should receive them shortly,” said Somraj.

The proposal to shift the corals had attracted several objections from citizens and experts last year, with the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) in Nagpur finally giving permission on condition that the chief engineer, Coastal Road project, BMC, would continue to monitor the health of the species after they were moved. “We will only really know about their health and growth toward the end of 2021. We need to observe the corals for at least a year before making any conclusions,” said Somraj.