Driving in Uran, a coastal town connected by the hip to Navi Mumbai, can be toxic for the lungs, especially if you have your car windows rolled down. A far cry from the erstwhile land of mangroves and wetlands — as seen in 'archival' images on Google — this dusty town is growing above its own rubble. At last count, the daily count of dumpers loading debris into Uran was 3,000, says environmentalist and member of the Bombay high court-appointed state mangrove committee, D Stalin.

The rapid rate at which towering residential complexes, industrial and road and flyover projects are coming up in the coastal town, has transformed this once green lung of Raigad district into a wasteland, where mangroves are quickly dying due to unchecked landfilling activity. The ecological destruction has been compounded by unseasonal flooding, which according to locals, has been on for the last few years, but only gained attention earlier this year, when on the occasion of Holi, during high-tide, nearly five villages faced waterlogging.