Mission to Clean Thane Creek Flamingo Sanctuary

Rapid urbanization, population pressure and the need for expansion of infrastructural projects have led to the mass reclamation of large areas of mangrove wetlands and associated mudflats. This in turn have led to habitat loss and/or fragmentation, loss of feeding and breeding grounds for water birds like Lesser Flamingo, Asian Open bill, Painted Stork, Glossy Ibis etc. Numbers of bird species have thus been seen declining with each year. The wetlands of Uran, which have been a paradise for water birds both resident and migratory birds have been completely lost due to the reclamation done by the JNPT and other agencies. The last refuges for these birds today are the Thane Creek and the Sewri Bay. The Thane Creek is known for the paradise for the migratory birds. The local fishermen are losing their livelihoods since a large catch in the nets includes non- degradable floating waste instead of fish. The wetland ecosystem is rapidly degrading and micro plastics are contaminating the food chain of birds and humans alike. If left unattended this problem could cause the death of the ecosystem, which is currently highly stressed due to pollutants like non-degradable waste. We are already conducting regular mangrove cleanup drives in Thane creek flamingo Sanctuary. Now we are planning to clean the whole Thane creek sanctuary using motor boats and nets for the two months on daily basis.  Boats will be used for the cleanup sine the plastic tends to come to the surface during high tides and cleaning has to be done during the high tide.  Weekly along with 20 labors cleanup drive will be conducted during tide time.  To collect trash, which is floating in the creek nets will be used.  By using metals rakes, the garbage (Plastic bags, Thormocol, etc.), which is stucked in mangroves, will be removed.  Collected trash will be sent to Municipal Corporation for further process.