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Fiona Fernandez: The fading out of a green signal

Updated on: 29 May,2017 06:52 AM IST  |  Mumbai
Fiona Fernandez | fiona.fernandez@mid-day.com

Mumbai's natural heritage and flora and fauna along the eastern front is a green fairytale that is looking at a grim future after the Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link is ready

Fiona Fernandez: The fading out of a green signal

It was one of those rare mornings, when we zipped through Mumbai — from north to south.


Before you get any ideas about a possible secret route, truth is we took the Eastern Express Highway and the Freeway. Of course, it helped that it was a Saturday morning — that blissful day before Sunday, when life has already unwound for a large chunk of Mumbai's population.


The view to our right was an eyesore of concrete monstrosities and the degeneration of a city that seems to be in a mad rush to 'uglify' itself. Even to the untrained eye it came across as a horrific skyline.


However, the frames to our left were a complete contrast. The vast open (and green) swathes of land along eastern front made us crane our necks from the window of our kaali-peeli.

The smooth roadway made it easier to watch the live magic that was being played out in front of us, like an advertisement for a city that was holding on tight to its last shades of green. Egrets, cranes and kingfishers had filled the morning sky; some were feasting on their breakfast in the mudflats while others had perched themselves on the tallest branches of the mangroves.

It was a party of tweets (the real deal) and bird calls; a feathered congregation that made us wish we had a camera to capture the activity or a pair of binoculars to spot the last of the flamingos spread their pink carpet over Sewri Bay before flying back to their home in the Rann of Kutch. To add to the mood, the Thane Creek played hide and seek with us in this panoramic morning slide-show.

In the distance, thick, endless columns of white smoke were billowing out of chimneys in the industrial hotspots of the satellite city, a reminder of the fragile ecosystem that we and our feathered friends live in. Yet, we continued our gaze.

As the road elevated after we hit the Freeway, the balcony-seat-like view heightened the experience. And, all of a sudden, the frame got a nasty shake-up.
Will the flora and fauna that we had just caught a glimpse of have a hope at survival when the Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link (MTHL) is ready? The 22.5-km-long bridge that will start in Sewri will cut through the same creek to Nhava Sheva.

With work on in full swing as tenders get floated and big overseas names expressing interest in this high profile project what chance do they realistically have? According to a report published in mid-day in March this year, MTHL will impact 47.4 hectares of forestland including 38.6 hectares of mangroves near Navi Mumbai and Sewri. MMRDA has promised afforestation of the same area as well as compensatory plantation of mangroves of another 222 hectares. As much as we'd like to take their word on this reassurance to protect this strip of our natural heritage, there's little reason to cheer from previous records.
As if on cue, our joyride on the Freeway was over. Outside, the chaos and cries of hamaals and hawkers, and the incessant honking of cars near Wadi Bunder junction ground us back to reality.

Mumbai is one of the few mega cities in the world to boast of an urban habitat for Greater and Lesser Flamingoes, while the accompanying avian population is a bonus in an island city that is woefully short of green cover. And now, all of this is under threat. World Environment Day (June 2, for the uninitiated) will continue to remain a celeb-studded, ribbon-cutting day for the city's movers and shakers. Climate change can wait.

mid-day's Features Editor Fiona Fernandez relishes the city's sights, sounds, smells and stones...wherever the ink and the inclination takes her. She tweets @bombayana Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com

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