Flamingo named ‘Navi Mumbai’, tagged to track movements

‘Navi Mumbai’ is the sixth Juvenile Lesser Flamingo that has been tagged with a GPS device; the bird has landed in Gujarat but its contact was lost later

Bird lovers in Navi Mumbai are elated that the nature research body, Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) has named a flamingo, ‘Navi Mumbai’, and even GPS tagged it to track its movements.

Flamingo named ‘Navi Mumbai’ by BNHS has been tagged with GPS. Its movements were tracked to Gujarat. (HT PHOTO)

‘Navi Mumbai’ is the sixth Juvenile Lesser Flamingo that has been tagged with a GPS device. The bird has landed in Gujarat but its contact was lost later, BNHS deputy director, Rahul Khot, said.

“We feel it has reached the breeding ground and we will get a full picture once it returns to Thane creek in the coming months,” Khot said.

“We are happy that the Flamingo City has been given this honour,” said BN Kumar, director of NatConnect Foundation, who has been running a campaign to save flamingos and their destinations.

Kumar had launched the campaign for the Flamingo City tag last October with a request to the then Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, who quickly responded and asked the Environment and Forest secretaries to take the ideas forward. Subsequently, NMMC wrote to the Centre to tag Navi Mumbai as Flamingo City as part of the Swachh Bharat campaign.

The Forest department and BNHS have named the areas as satellite wetlands under the Thane Creek Flamingo Sanctuary management plan. Flamingos, in particular, are known to fly to these six wetlands when the creek level rises during high tides.

BNHS has been conducting the long-term ecological monitoring of migratory birds visiting Thane Creek since 2017. To understand winter birds’ habitat use and migration patterns, the researchers deployed bird rings and colour flags at sites around Thane Creek. So far, around 21,000 birds have been ringed and flagged, and BNHS has been able to get resights within India and from other countries.