Mumbra-Diva Mangroves

The Diva Mumbra mangroves need help now.

Low cost housing and commercial units are coming up at a fast pace

Close up of the area. On mangroves and next to mangroves

The big picture. The big circled area was destroyed between 2000-02

Walk in Mangroves

Wetlands Day March a grand success!!

To celebrate World Wetlands Day which is celebrated on February 2nd the residents of Juhu Versova Link Road along with the Save Andheri Versova Environment (SAVE) Forum and the Mangrove Society of India (Mumbai Chapter) organized a march through the neighbourhood.

The purpose of the march was to highlight the importance of the mangroves to the people in the neighbourhood and to send a message that the destruction of mangroves will not be tolerated.

The core group which met on January 17th had estimated that atleast 50 people will definitely come for the march. To everybody’s surprise more than 250 people turned up for the march!! The response has completely energised everybody in the neighborhood to work for the protection of the mangroves in the neighbourhood.

Below are the pictures from the march.

Large number of children participated

The march passed through the main roads of the area

An areal view of some of the mangrvoes in the area

Letter on Charkop mangroves

A letter to the various authorities as listed in the letter has been sent. The letter is copied below and has been hand delivered and sent by registered post to Delhi.

Charkop Jan08 letter

MOEF considers mangroves important!

Friends check the Ministry of Environment and Forests Annual Report 06-07 at the link below and see the amount of importance the Ministry lays on mangroves and coastal ecosystems. Now its up to the grassroots community to insure that they are making representations to the MOEF reminding them to demonstrate action!

http://envfor.nic.in/report/report.html

Report of 3rd June Human Chain for Environment

Human Chain for Environment on 3^rd June, 2007 was a success at Eastern Express Highway and Lokhandwal Complex, Andheri. About 60 people attended the same at Eastern Express Highway and 40 at Lokhandwal Complex, Andheri to express their solidarity with mangroves. At Lokhandwala the group braved the rains during the event.

Photo of Human Chain

Eastern Express Highway Human Chain

Human Chain for Environment on 3rd June 2007

Mangrove Society of India (Mumbai)

June 5^th 2007World Environment Day

Join the human chain to support mangroves

Dear friends

The mangroves of Mumbai need your public and visible support. In spite of their value being proved time and again the authorities are still not doing enough to protect them. If we do not act now there will be no mangroves left in a decade. Kindly join in large numbers at the locations below to show your solidarity. Date: Sunday June 3^rd 2007

Kanjur, Eastern Express Highway Time: 8:00 am – 10:00 am

Lokhandwala Complex, Andheri (W) Time: 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm

    

Creek in high tide

World Trade Center mangroves

The above photos were taken by Vaishakh Nethrakere in April 07 (click on them to get a better view). These are the absolute last mangroves as can be seen in the bottommost picture. A thin line of mangrovs hugs the coast and is increasingly encroached upon by illegal slum dwellers dumping one sack of debris at a time.

All this happens while the whole area is surrounded by some of the most powerful people in India. 

Success in Charkop

We received a complaint in the first week of April from Ravindra and Manisha Chalwadi of Sector 8, Charkop, Kandivili(W) that every morning at around 5:30 am 2 trucks were regularly coming and dumping debris at a particular spot close to their building.

Usual complaints at the neighbouring police station and the Ward Office, R (Central) yielded no results.

Then on 27th April 07 Manisha and Vaishakh jointly visited the Collector and brought the incident to his notice. As of 28th April the dumping stopped with a flying squad of BMC nabbin the two trucks early in the morning.

On 30th April Manisha and Vaishakh will be visiting the Tehsildar at Dahisar to further lodge a complaint and find out the details about the truckers.

Preliminary informtation suggests that the land belongs to MHADA in which case they should be the ones taking interst in protecting their land.