Reclaiming Uran wetlands may hit flights at new airport: BNHS

MUMBAI: Wildlife conservation group Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) has warned the state that the Panje wetlands in Uran, which are under threat due to infrastructure projects, needs to be conserved to make flight operations safe at the proposed Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA).

“If these wetlands are reclaimed, the elevated airport, especially the area along the runway, will be a spot where these birds will begin to roost. We cannot have half a million birds in close proximity to flights taking off and landing,” said Deepak Apte, director, BNHS.

After fishermen from Navi Mumbai reported that channels carrying high tide water to the Panje wetlands were blocked off by the City and Industrial Development Corporation Limited (Cidco), BNHS, which is advising Cidco on environment issues during the airport construction, wrote to the state and the Maharashtra mangrove cell on Thursday to ensure that high tide water flow to the 237-hectare wetland patch, which attracts migratory birds, does not stop .

Taking cognisance of the complaints, the mangrove cell said they had sent their officers to investigate the matter. “These are not notified forest areas but the presence of mangroves give them protected status. We are checking whether Cidco has any permission to carry out this activity,” said N Vasudevan, additional principal chief conservator of forest, state mangrove cell.

Meanwhile, Cidco had confirmed they were carrying out flood-control mechanism but also said a portion of the sluice gate had been damaged and was replaced to allow high tide water ingress.

Almost a fortnight ago, due to heavy rains, five of the 12 sluice gates were damaged. We installed new fibre gates and the water was stopped for a while during the installation process. As of now, tidal flow is non-stop,” said Pramod Patil, nodal officer, environment and forest, Cidco.

“There are three wetlands in the Navi Mumbai area that are of utmost significance as far as high tide migratory bird roosting sites are concerned — Panje-funde, TS Chanakya wetlands and NRI complex. It is extremely crucial to protect Panje in order to mitigate air safety hazard for NMIA, and it should not be compromised by any means,” Apte said.