View source for Mumbai: Thane creek

==As in 2021==


[https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/a-2000-acre-forest-in-mumbai-prince-charles-knows-about-but-you-dont/articleshow/88032334.cms  Dec 2, 2021: ''The Times of India'']

[[File: Situated in the heart of Mumbai, it's the city’s third-largest green belt after Sanjay Gandhi National Park and Aarey Colony.jpg|Situated in the heart of Mumbai, it's the city’s third-largest green belt after Sanjay Gandhi National Park and Aarey Colony <br/> From: [https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/a-2000-acre-forest-in-mumbai-prince-charles-knows-about-but-you-dont/articleshow/88032334.cms  Dec 2, 2021: ''The Times of India'']|frame|500px]]

Mumbai harbours many secrets. One of them is a vibrant ecosystem spread over 2,000 acres. In fact, it is the city’s third-largest green belt after the Sanjay Gandhi National Park and Aarey Colony, and nearly three times the size of New York's Central Park. 

This well-secured, part swamp, part forest with its dense tangle of roots and branches snaking along the west bank of the Thane creek is Mumbai’s largest privately owned mangrove reserve — the Godrej Industrial Garden Township Mangrove ecosystem. At one end of Vikhroli off the Eastern Express highway, an arched gate opens out into the green maze. 

Thousands pass by it every day, but 50% of Mumbaikars don’t seem to know about it, according to a recent study by Godrej & Boyce that surveyed how many people living in and around the city know about this delicate ecosystem in their midst.

“To our dismay, we found that only 50% of Mumbaikars — Thane and Navi Mumbai residents — were aware. Out of that only 34% understand its positive impact on a city like Mumbai,” rued Pheroza Godrej, who initiated a five-month-long ‘Magical Mangroves’ campaign in 2020 in collaboration with WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) to identify over 100 mangrove volunteers ready to commit their time towards mangrove conservation and inspire more to do the same. 

A team from Mumbai Mirror was allowed access to this dynamic ecosystem of intertidal mangrove belt, looked after by the Soonabai Pirojsha Godrej Foundation. The foundation was set up in 1985 when the Godrejs wanted to formalise their efforts to conserve this ecological oasis.

The Godrej family’s interest in environmental matters goes back to the founder of the group, Pirojsha Godrej, who acquired several hundred acres of land in1948 for setting up an industrial township. Realising the need to find a balance between industrial activities and nature, Pirojsha decided to let the mangroves be. 

Pirojsha passed on his vision to his sons Burjor and Naval whose efforts at conservation led to the creation of the Soonabai Pirojsha Godrej Foundation bringing the entire mangrove stretch across Vikhroli and Thane under the foundation’s direct supervision. 

While the land was cordoned off to combat illegal logging of wood, it was made available to students, teachers, eco-activists, forest department officials, photographers and nature enthusiasts who frequent these saline woodlands to study biodiversity, mangrove management and pollution trends. In more recent times, a first-of-its-kind mobile app in 11 Indian languages on Vikhroli's mangrove ecosystem has further expanded access.

“During lockdown we remotely trained 80 youths in eight coastal states so they could train others to conserve mangroves in their respective states,” says Tejashree Joshi, head of environment and sustainability at Godrej & Boyce. 

Taking in the sights and sounds at these saline woodlands on a Saturday morning, 72-year-old Pheroza Godrej says: “I try to come here once a week but the visual of this place is so implanted in my brain that whenever anyone tells me about something happening somewhere I always know which spot.” 

“I was 20 when I saw a David Attenborough film about mangroves and what stuck is that all life begins in the ocean and what we see above the ocean begins here at the mangroves. This is the quiet link between the sea, ocean or water and terrestrial earth. Without it, we wouldn’t have evolved,” she says, contemplating ways to keep these coastal saltwater forests undisturbed. Today, even as the city reels under threats of industrial pollution, land reclamation and incessant felling of trees, this extensive root network of Pirojshanagar stands guard along the eastern shoreline, quietly weathering the force of cyclones and floods.

However, life in the mangroves is never really quiet. Their trunks and roots hanging in water along the creeks are home to 208 species of birds, 82 butterfly species, 31 reptile species, 4 mammal species, 22 fish species, 14 crab species, 7 prawn species, 79 spider species and more than 75 insect species. 

“Apart from preventing soil erosion and flash floods or supporting flora and fauna, this mangrove — flanked by the Deonar and Kanjurmarg dumping grounds on either side — also accounts for huge carbon sequestration of around 60,000 equivalent tons of carbon dioxide every year,” says Joshi.

To watch over this watery carbon reservoir, an ‘environment cell’ was formed that over the years has had environmentalists and scientists like Salim Ali, A K Ganguly, H N Sethna and N Vasudevan overseeing the scientific management of the mangroves while a dedicated ‘Wetland Management Services’ steers the conservation initiatives. 

“In our family, we have the tiger fanatics and water fanatics, but I try to remind everyone, ‘Where did they come from? Trees,” says Godrej, stressing that the mangroves alone cannot continue to shoulder the city’s ecological burden. “I’m a firm believer that not just in the mangroves but be it in your colony or your own house garden, let the trees be. They have a life and they will fall but till then let’s keep them safe.”

=Thane Creek Flamingo Sanctuary=