Team Blitz India
NATURE lovers in Navi Mumbai found their hearts broken once again last week when they found 12 flamingos in unconscious condition at the bank of DPS lake one morning. The incident was reported to Wildlife Welfare Association (WWA) in Thane, which found that of the 12 flamingos, five were dead and the remaining seven were injured, which were taken for treatment.
Later, two more of the injured birds succumbed to injuries. Earlier in March, two flamingos were killed in Navi Mumbai. While one had collided with a signboard installed by the City and Industrial Development Corporation (Cidco), another was crushed by a speeding vehicle on Palm Beach Road. The total count of flamingo deaths within a single month has now reached nine.
Avian enthusiasts and environmental activists are seeking a thorough investigation to find the cause of the death of the seven flamingos and urging authorities to take necessary action.
“We, in coordination with the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC), wrote to Cidco to stop being careless about the DPS wetland, but the destruction continued,” said B N Kumar, the Director of NatConnect Foundation.
On April 26, Deepak Khade, Divisional Forest Officer of Mangrove Cell, Mumbai, inspected the DPS Lake wetland along with representatives from the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), Natconnect Foundation, Vanashakti NGO, NMMC officials, and local environmentalists.
In the preliminary observation, it was found that two out of three inlets of the lake were blocked by the newly constructed high-rise roads by Cidco which resulted in stagnant water.
According to experts, the death of the flamingos can also be attributed to a scientific phenomenon called ‘light pollution’, which partially impairs the vision of the birds.
