Fisherman Sandeep Koli had been at sea for almost nine hours when we visit him at Gavhan Koliwada in Navi Mumbai. He reached there when the water was still cold at around 5 am, as has been his routine for the past several decades. But even after an arduous work day that ended at 4 pm, Koli had managed to catch less than three dozen crabs. Disappointed, he told us that half of the catch will be set aside for his family, while the other half will be sold at Bhaucha Dhakka. It will fetch him a few hundred bucks only. “The catch has been depleting with every passing day,” he says. 

Just about 45 km from Mumbai, on the coastline of Gavhan Koliwada and neighbouring coastal areas in Ulwe and Panvel taluka, the fishermen community is mourning two deaths. That of their livelihood due to the construction of the Mumbai Trans Harbour Sea Link (MTHL), which has affected the marine flora and fauna, and the unceremonious cutting of mangroves and handing over of 10 acres of mangrove land for construction of a Balaji temple.