Plea to brand Navi Mumbai as Flamingo City catches CM Thackeray’s attention

Following the demand from a Navi Mumbai environmentalist to brand Navi Mumbai as the Flamingo City, CM Uddhav Thackeray has asked the Environment and Forest secretaries to take the suggestion forward

Following the demand from a Navi Mumbai environmentalist to brand Navi Mumbai as the Flamingo City, CM Uddhav Thackeray has asked the Environment and Forest secretaries to take the suggestion forward.

Flamingoes are regular visitors to the wetlands of Navi Mumbai. Plea to brand Navi Mumbai as Flamingo City catches CM Thackeray’s attention. (HT FILE PHOTO)

Responding to a plea by NatConnect Foundation to help conserve Navi Mumbai’s biodiversity, Thackeray marked the mail to Manisha Patankar Mhaiskar, Principal Secretary – Environment and P Venugopal Reddy, Forest Secretary.

“We are happy that the CM response came in less than ten minutes and we will now follow up with the government departments,” NatConnect director, BN Kumar, said.

NatConnect also requested the CM to facilitate Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) take over the wetlands at NRI and TS Chanakya in Nerul, and maintain them as wetlands with the help of the State Mangrove Cell.

NMMC already maintains 24 lakes in urban as well as rural areas of the city under it. NMMC has also been painting the city with flamingo pictures and putting up sculptures to remind the people of the biodiversity. “We need to go beyond this and protect and conserve the birds,” Kumar said.

Commenting on the Flamingo City proposal, Sunil Agrawal of Save Navi Mumbai Environment, said “It is long overdue to protect and conserve the city’s biodiversity. We need more and more green lungs as the so-called planned city is fast turning into a concrete jungle.”

Apart from this, the environmentalists also requested authorities to conserve the NRI and TS Chanakya wetlands that are frequented by flamingoes.

The Mangrove Cell has also expressed its desire to conserve these two wetlands as part of the satellite sanctuaries for the Thane Creek Flamingo Sanctuary as proposed by BNHS.

BNHS has suggested maintaining these wetlands as a risk mitigation measure for the upcoming Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA). Birds from Thane sanctuary tend to fly to these and other wetlands for roosting during high tides. These two wetlands also attract thousands of migratory birds and are part of the city’s biodiversity.

Supporting the idea of conserving the two wetlands, BNHS director, Bivash Pandav, said “We are blessed with such natural wetlands and must make all efforts to protect them.”