Radio Connect

In this gloomy atmosphere, friends, I have some positive development to report. In fact, JANTHIT MEIN is all about bring forth issues which are in your interest and our interest.

Remember the polio drive? I am sure you do when those volunteers knock the door and ask: Koi Chota Bachha Hai Kya? And then they would give those two drops - DO BOOND, as Amitabh Bachhan would say.

Exactly the same atrategy is being followed by Yogi Adityanath Government in Uttar Pradesh.

Micro planning, house visits, concurrent monitoring and follow ups were core to India’s polio eradication strategy to ensure no one misses access to vaccination and health care services.

I was very happy to see the WHO, yes World Health Organisation talking positively about the COVID case strategy of the Uttar Pradesh Government. In a special feature in its News section, the WHO mentions that The Uttar Pradesh state government is going to the last mile to stop COVID.

The state, it says, has initiated house-to-house active case finding of COVID-19 in rural areas to contain transmission by testing people with symptoms for rapid isolation, disease management and contact tracing.

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Thank you and Namaste

This is Radio Connect

You are listening to Speak up For Nature Series.

This is your narrator B N Kumar.

World Migratory Bird Day greetings to all of you.

On this occasion, we want to focus on a very important issue regarding migratory birds.

We would like to address The President of India, the Prime Minister, the civil aviation minister, the chief minister of Maharashtra through this broadcast.

We also want all the associations and federations of pilots to take this issue seriously.

And of course, my media friends – particularly those covering aviation.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen:

It is about the impending threat to flights at the upcoming Navi Mumbai International Airport.

The threat is not due to the birds, but because we human beings are playing with their age-old destinations, namely the wetlands and mangroves around the airport project.

The wetlands and mangroves in Navi Mumbai are being buried and this has been disturbing the movements of migratory birds.

For a long time we have been fighting to protect and conserve Panje Wetland. Panje is in Uran right across Mumbai harbour.

Also, our friends such as Sunil Agarwal of Save Navi Mumbai Environment platform have been fighting to protect TSC-NRI wetlands at Talave as Flamingo Sanctuary.

On both these issues, we have come across an interesting piece of information which has almost been hidden.

Friends, we stumbled on a post on the CMO official Facebook page post by then Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. The post says the state wildlife board meeting chaired by Fadnavis, approved three bird sanctuaries in Mumbai region. They are: Mahul Shivdi, TSC land near Palm Beach & Panje-Funde), which will help in conservation of Flamingo.

We, therefore, requested Thackeray to go ahead with his predecessor’s decision and make this announcement as the World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) gift to Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR),

MUMBAI: Focusing on protecting mangroves, wetlands and migratory birds in Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) has mooted an Urban Biodiversity Plan for the area.

BNHS will take up the project, along with other environment-focused NGOs and groups, with the State government to make sure that “whatever we are left with is protected”, said the Society director Dr Bivash Pandav. Mumbai region is home to hundreds of thousands of migratory birds and they play a major role in conserving biodiversity, he pointed out.

BNHS, formed over 130 years ago, specializes in the conservation of nature and natural resources as well as organizing education activities and exploration of natural history.

Taking part in an online discussion on Birds and Biodiversity organised by NatConnect Foundation, Dr Pandav firmly declared that “at no cost the biodiversity and bird destinations like Panje should be allowed to turn into concrete jungles”. The discussion was part of an awareness week-long campaign launched by NatConnect, ahead of the World Migratory Bird Day being observed on May 8.

Dr Pandav’s team, which has been officially assigned by local urban planner CIDCO to study the bird flight pattern, has been stopped from entering Panje by the security guards of NMSEZ which has been allotted the Panje Wetland. “Panje is a beautiful sanctuary area and it has to be protected,” he said.

NatConnect director B N Kumar expressed his disgust that CIDCO allocated the 289-hectare Panje wetland to NMSEZ and even earmarked the area as sectors 16 to 28 as part of the Dronagiri Development Plan, covering all mangrove and wetlands areas and without any Coastal regulatory Zone clearances.

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) spread over 6,640 sq. km. consists of 9 Municipal Corporations viz. Greater Mumbai, Thane, Kalyan-Dombivali, Navi Mumbai, Ulhasnagar, Bhiwandi- Nizamapur, Vasai-Virar, Mira-Bhayandar and Panvel; and 9 Municipal Councils viz. Ambarnath, Kulgaon-Badalapur, Matheran, Karjat, Khopoli, Pen, Uran, Alibaug and Palghar, along with more than 1,000 villages in Thane, Raigad and Palghar Districts. MMRDA is responsible for the balanced development of the MMR.

Dr Pandav pointed out that the entire region is blessed with plenty of biodiversity which is very important from an environmental safety point. Wetlands are nature's flood control mechanism, apart from supporting a whole lot of life, he said and cautioned the urban planners that the future cities in the region will be in great danger if biodiversity is destroyed.

Taking part in the discussion, Nandakumar Pawar, head of Shri Ekvira Aai Pratishtan, said that official agencies such as CIDCO have only one point programme – that is to make money even at the cost of the environment. It is sad that the agency does not respect even the National Green Tribunal's order when it comes to saving Panje wetland.

Sunil Agarwal, activist of Save Navi Mumbai Environment, who has been campaigning to save Talawe wetlands as flamingo sanctuaries, expressed his shock that CIDCO blatantly lied about the existence of the wetland. CIDCO has leased out the wetlands to real estate developers and is hell bent on burying the area for creating a golf course.

Naresh Chandra Singh, a Kharghar-based activist, said his team has begun documenting the birds and wildlife in the area though CIDCO has turned a blind eye to the destruction of mangroves and wetlands in the node.

With the overflow of little tidal water into parched Panje Wetland at Uran in Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), migratory birds tagged by BNHS in September 2018 have returned to the area bringing into sharp focus the need to conserve ‘urban sponges’.

Panje has been reduced to a dry land with the blocking of tidal water inlets by vested interests despite an order from the National Green Tribunal (NTG) to clear the hindrances. Some tidal water, however, flowed over the manmade bunds into parts of the wetland which has become uneven due to intermittent illegal, landfill, NGO NatConnect Foundation said.

Local birder Parag Gharat who ventured out with his camera after seeing the waterflow spotted the tagged birds. NatConnect director B N Kumar quickly cross-checked with BNHS which identified the birds as greater sandplover (Charadrius Leshnaultii).

BNHS also confirmed that it has done the tagging. “Looks like the birds are using Mumbai coast as stopover or refuelling site,” remarked BNHS director Dr Bivash Pandav.

The sandplovers that breed in semi-deserts of Central Asia such as Turkey, have the tendency to fly eastward and can live from 12 to 19 years. This species is strongly migratory, wintering on sandy beaches in East Africa, South Asia and Australasia, BNHS experts said.

Ahead of the World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) being observed on May 8, NatConnect Foundation has launched a campaign, focusing on birds and bio-diversity. “Migratory birds are our seasonal guests and we are lucky in MMR to have them visiting us,” said Kumar.

“The migratory birds teach us the importance of maintaining our wetlands as not only their birds breeding or nesting grounds, but as urban sponges that absorb flood waters. Wetlands are home to several microbes which are essential for our biodiversity as we are taught in our schools,” he said.

Nandakumar Pawar, head of Shri Ekvira Aai Pratishtan, regretted that most of the Panje Wetland remained dry as water flow is continued to be blocked by vested interests. “We just cannot understand how the officials can keep flouting the NGT order to clear the manmade blocks at the five water inlets,” he said and alleged that the State government agency CIDCO is apparently hands-in-glove with the vested interests at work to keep the wetland dry to facilitate construction there.

COVID has impacted our lives in more than one way.

While the government machinery and private endeavours are busy fighting the pandemic, environmental care has taken a backseat.

Under the shadow of COVID-triggered lockdown, massive destruction of wetlands and mangroves has been on in Uran area across Mumbai harbour.

At the same time, environmental protection work has been held up due to COVID itself.

The state-owned urban planner CIDCO is yet to comply with the National Green Tribunal’s order to clear tidal water blocks to Panje Wetland. The wetland, once a destination for over two lakh migratory and local exotic birds, has been forcibly dried out.

On the other side of Panje, along the Dronagiri Coastal Road, Navi Mumbai SEZ has been carrying on landfill on wetland. CIDCO, the local planner, allotted mangrove zones and wetlands for infrastructure projects. This is illegal, say environmentalists.

NGO NatConnect Foundation has requested the Maharashtra Government to quickly intervene and stop this destruction of nature.

The NGO pointed out that it is a paradox that CIDCO could not find time to comply with NGT order to allow free flow of water to Panje Wetland. In fact, the Maharashtra Environment Director had instructed the state government agency and the Raigad District collector way back in November last to clear blocks at Panje wetland.

In fact, the western zonal bench of NGT in its order on April 15, did not find it necessary to hear out CIDCO since the State government’s order to clear the blockage of the five tidal water inlets to Panje wetland, was already in force.

Nandakumar Pawar, head of Shri Ekvira Aai Pratishtan, had moved the NGT as the authorities have failed to immplement the government’s order.

Pawar said Even the Bombay High Court appointed Mangrove and wetlands committee orders to maintain Panje as a wetland have been ignored.

NMSEZ does not have the necessary coastal zone clearances, which is shown in an RTI response from the Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority or MCZMA.

Another tragedy is that the government’s own CIDCO is a 26% partner in NMSEZ.

Many mangroves and wetlands under NMSEZ plots have already been buried. The result of this reckless work, say environmentalists,  was that several low lying Uran villages had unseasonal floods as gushing high tide water found its own course. Even paddy fields were inundated damaging the crop.