Not-so-wetlands: Parched Panje still to find tide relief

MUMBAI: Almost 40 days after the blocked tidewater channels at Panje wetlands in Navi Mumbai were restored, the marshes have dried up again.

On October 11, after complaints from environmentalists, the City and Industrial Development Corporation Ltd (Cidco), the planning agency for the area, opened 70 of the 76 gates of the flood-control barrier that blocks tidewater flow into the wetlands. The Konkan commissioner and chairperson of the state wetland committee had asked Cidco to ensure the gates remain open till next monsoon.

Environmentalists, who visited the wetlands on Tuesday, said tidewater flow was still blocked. “The wetland used to have water throughout the year. But now, the parched wetland only has a small patch with water where flamingos and other waders were spotted. Their habitat has been completely destroyed,” said Nandkumar Pawar of Shree Ekvira Aai Pratishthan, a local community group working to save the wetlands.

“Panje has gone dry with sluice gates for the holding pond open but seawater from other zones blocked. begins. Those responsible for the death of the wetland should be punished,” said BN Kumar, a Navi Mumbai environmentalist.

The 289-hectare Panje site is a notified wetland under Maharashtra’s National Wetland Atlas 2011. However, since the state has decided to carry out a fresh study demarcating wetlands across Maharashtra again, there is no clarity on the exact boundary of wetland areas.

“At that time, there were hardly any mangroves on the patch. It is over the past five years that mangroves had cropped up but now the area is completely dry,” said Pramod Patil, nodal officer, environment and forest, Cidco. “Since there was low tide for the past five to six days, the area looks dry but we expect high tide water flow to increase within the next few days.”

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