Three massive patches of mangroves in Mankhurd near the Vashi creek, totalling four acres, which were once thriving, now lie dead and shrivelled up. Their descent into death began around three years ago, said a range forest officer (RFO) of the government’s mangrove cell. This week, he wrote to the divisional forest officer (DFO), informing him about the state of the mangroves. “The land used to be under the jurisdiction of the Thane Creek Flamingo Sanctuary,” said the RFO. “But due to reorganisation at the end of last year, it has now come under the mangrove cell. We carried out a site inspection along with our mangrove expert, and will now figure out the root cause of the death.”
The officer explained that there were three affected patches; the first lies in between the Sion-Panvel highway and the parallel railway tracks, and the second lies past the railway tracks. At the time of construction, water pipes were constructed beneath the road as a channel of water from the Vashi Creek flowed there. Through this, the mangroves had a steady stream of water.
“As per our preliminary investigation, it appears that the water pipes underneath have choked up, which is why the mangroves were starved of water. We don’t suspect any foul play,” said the RFO. “But as the pipes are underneath a highway and railway tracks and beside important gas pipes, checking the state of the pipes is not easy.”
The mangrove expert from the mangrove cell was not all that uncertain. “On speaking to the locals, we were told that water does collect in the area at high tide, so clearly it is not cut off from water,” she said. “But what we saw there indicates that these mangroves are very old and have died a good while earlier. There were a lot of salt deposits, which could be unsuitable for this species of mangrove. Construction activity may have also led to the deaths.”
The third mangrove patch lies deeper within, near the salt pan lands. The RFO suspected that water had been diverted to the salt pans, leaving the mangroves high and dry. “Previously, the TCFS has also written about the issue, flagging it. I have written to the DFO, informing him of what we found,” he said. “We can then decide the next course of action and perhaps approach the Public Works Department and Railways to inspect the pipe. As for the third spot, it is the easiest to fix, as all it needs is new pipe connections ensuring a flow of water to it.” As the DFO has been recently transferred, however, further action is yet to be decided.
According to Stalin D, environmental activist and member of the high court-appointed mangrove committee, the death of the mangrove patches is old news. “They died not due to being starved of water but because they’ve been made to sit in stagnant water, while mangroves need a constant flow of water to survive,” he said. “The inflow and outflow of tidal water was blocked years ago when the Sion-Panvel highway was expanded, and during the construction, the water pipes were choked with debris.”
The activist blamed the forest department for taking action at snail’s pace. “This has been visible to the mangrove cell and forest department the whole time, and complaints on it also reached them but they did nothing,” he said. “The solution is also not as complicated as they’re making it out to be. All that is needed is a little honesty and expertise to fix the issue. If the mangrove cell made a site visit, why didn’t they take the NGO members of the committee along?”
SV Rama Rao, additional principal chief conservator of forests in the Mangrove Cell, said he was not aware of the complaints as of yet.