20 November,2009 08:52 AM IST | | Bittu Sahgal
The flamingos have returned to Sewri. In the Sanjay Gandhi National Park leopards, chital and sambar walk free.
Warblers from the high Himalayas have made their way to Malabar Hill to the verdant grounds of the Parsi Punchayet. (May that wonderful community be blessed.) They have supported the tiny birds long before the Portuguese, or for that matter the Kolis, ever stepped foot on Salsette.
This evening I saw huge fruit bats fly out in search of fruit, and tiny pipestrelles (also bats) trawl the skies hawking mosquitoes from the air to keep Mumbai free of malaria and dengue, more effectively than all of BMC's poison throwers put together.
Without open spaces all these creatures will vanish. And without them where would Mumbai's free spirit be?
