The good green fight must go on

Activists decry plummeting bio-diversity, rue roadblocks and offer solutions to save mangroves, wetlands on World Wetlands Day

Tomorrow (February 2), is World Wetlands' Day. A wetland is any water body temporary or permanent, natural or manmade, flowing or static. In Mumbai, World Wetlands' Day is marked by despair, as activists continue to struggle to save mangroves and wetlands, both repositories of bio-diversity.

Large scale destruction of both, especially in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), prompted green warriors to call a press conference on Friday at the Press Club to highlight the continued fight to preserve green slices in Uran and surrounding areas. The meet was headlined #SaveWetLandsSaveMumbai.

Alarming figures
The non-profit NatConnect Foundation led the charge. Director B N Kumar said, "We are seeing a steady decline of both these diversity hotspots." Kumar cited recent findings by Wetlands International South Asia stating that Mumbai has lost a maximum of 71 per cent of actual wetlands between 1970 and 2014. Kumar then showed a slide of Uran, which has seen land filling, with soil being poured over mangroves and water bodies, and said, "This was once a stunning, beautiful green land. Today it is a desert. Why go to Rajasthan? You have a desert here."

Activists also showed a slide of the Dastan wetland, about 55 km from Mumbai, "Which has been filled by the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT)," they said. Kumar added, "Some of these photos you see on the slides were obtained by us by risking our lives. Once, we were surrounded by trucks while taking these pictures. We would have lost our lives, we managed to escape."

Kumar said that Panje, which is yet another wetland, is "under attack." Explaining that despite CIDCO marking Panje as, "a holding pond, a flood control mechanism, it has earmarked it for real estate development as part of the Navi Mumbai SEZ."

There was a slide which showed dumping of garbage and sewer water on mangroves by the Uran Municipal Council. "The Mangroves Committee has asked them to stop but the menace continues," Kumar said.

Nandakumar Pawar, head Shri Ekvira Aai Pratishtan, a non-profit in the green space said, "Ecologically sensitive Uran has borne the brunt of a brutal attack by various project proponents."

Tukaram Koli, of a fishermen's forum called Paramparik Macchimar Bachao Kruti Samiti said, "Fishermen's livelihoods have been adversely affected because of the disappearance of wetlands. It is a question of survival for the original inhabitants of Mumbai and the region beyond. Farmers are on the political radar and we do not grudge them that, but who will speak for fishermen? We are losing out because fish, crabs, all kinds of marine life have disappeared with the obliteration of water bodies which are the hub of bio-diversity. Today, outsiders have schools, hospitals, new roads and lights built for them, but what about the Kolis who have lived here for generations? Our livelihood and way of life is disappearing."

Pawar concurred with the economic asphyxiation of the fisher folk. Koli finished, "The media has tried to help us by highlighting our plight but is anybody paying attention?"

Sapping efforts
The activists, including Sunil and Shruti Agarwal who are from the Save Navi Mumbai Environment Foundation - campaigning for saving the Talawe wetland (near Seawoods) from being buried and made into a golf course - also spoke about the enervating fight to save the environment, the numerous complaints which are shifted from one department to another, sometimes as many as 10, and dealing with ridiculous roadblocks like, "There are no environmental officials to complain to, as all of them are on election duty."

In the end Kumar stated, "We must fight the good green fight. Committees like the Mangrove Committee must be given more teeth, like the power to prosecute. We have also mooted a proposal to have something called the 'Green Polic,e' as the existing police machinery is inadequate and does not have the manpower to deal with complaints about environmental violations."

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