Flamingos descending in thousands on the wetland areas of Navi Mumbai is a common sight between November and May, but environmentalists and lovers of the pink-winged guests are thrilled as a record 1.33 lakh migratory birds have been sighted during 2021-22.
No wonder that ahead of the World Migratory Bird Day (WMBFD) celebrated on Saturday, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray at a State Cabinet meeting held on Thursday cleared for submission to the Centre the proposal for designating the biodiversity-rich Thane Creek Flamingo Sanctuary (TCFS) in Thane-Navi Mumbai belt as a Ramsar site as per the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.
The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands. Also known as the Convention on Wetlands, it is named after the city of Ramsar in Iran, where the convention was signed in 1971.
If approved by the Centre, TCFS — spread over 1,690.5 hectares — will be the first such wetland site in Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and the third in Maharashtra to be designated as a Ramsar site of international importance under the Ramsar Convention.
Himself a wildlife and aerial photographer and a naturalist, Uddhav is keen on TCFS being declared as a Ramsar site. His son and State Environment Minister Aaditya Thackeray — who had cleared the proposal on December 9 last for final approval by the Chief Minister — is pushing for declaration of TCFS as a Ramsar site.
Between November and May every year, pink-winged guests flock the mudflats, creeks and wetlands of MMR in vast numbers, mostly for feeding purposes from breeding sites in the Gujarat region as well as Iran. Migration from breeding ground starts after the monsoon when water-filled regions start drying up.
Thousands of people from Mumbai and neighbouring areas throng parts of TCFS and other creek areas in MMR to catch a glimpse of the sea of pink in the wetland areas.
The State Government's decision to send a proposal to the Centre to designate the TCFS as a Ramsar site as per the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands could not have come at more appropriate time than now when informed researchers from the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), a pan-India wildlife research organisation which has been monitoring, tracking and tagging flamingos since 2018, have recorded highest-ever 1.33 lakh of flamingos in MMR during 2021-22.
