This year a record number of flamingos flew into Bombay—1,33,000. Apparently one reason for these swelling numbers is believe it or not, pollution. The pollution at Thane Creek is conducive to the growth of microorganisms that flamingos feed on. But it’s also pollution and “development” in other places, which is causing wetlands to shrink, that is making our city a place where more birds gather.

The thought of these birds flying in from nearby Gujarat, but also far away Afghanistan, Iran and parts of Africa, feels magical and mythical. The return of the golden orioles with autumn is simultaneously wondrous and comforting, like an embrace from nature. The shooting through of flowers, red, purple, pink, mulmul white, as the sun grows hotter, quickens our blood too. In the lockdown, some people were prone to exclaim “nature is coming back” as though nature were a static being, when in fact all of nature is always coming and going, here and there, by chance or need or design, migrating willingly or unwillingly, as do humans.