Bird lovers tickled pink AT FLAMINGO FEST
Participants Take An Oath To Protect The Migratory Birds ……….Simit Bhagat
Participants Take An Oath To Protect The Migratory Birds ……….Simit Bhagat
Mumbai: Armed with cameras, bird catalogues and interesting wildlife anecdotes, around 3,500 citizens flocked to the Sewri mudflats on Saturday to catch a glimpse of the feathered yearly visitors at the Flamingo Festival being held there. However, they were pleasantly suprised when they saw the entire area teeming with the flamingos.
Before they started off on bird-spotting, the participants including children, took an oath to protect the flamingos as well as other migratory birds in their area. In a symbolic ges ture, they also signed on a wall with messages to save the flam ingos as well as their habitat.
Asad Rahmani, director of Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), who had organised the event, said, Since Sewri creek is one of the important bird areas, we want to promote it as a tourist spot. We also want to conserve the natural beauty of the place and generate awareness about the migratory birds that come there every year.
First sighted in Mumbai in 1994, the flamingos have ever since been annual visitors to the Sewri mudflats, Mahul jetty, Airoli bridge, Vashi bridge and Uran. This year, there are more than 15,000 greater (bigger in size and pinkish) and lesser flamingos that have arrived in the city. However, environmentalists fear that the number may deindle over the years as their habitat may be destroyed with the proposed Sewri-Nhava Sheva trans-harbour link.
The threat might be there in the background, but on Saturday, participants were overjoyed as they saw 15,000 flamingos flying, swimming and hovering over the Sewri creek itself. For Anjali, a Std-III student of RBK International School in Chembur, it was the first time that she actually saw the large flock of the pink migratory birds sitting by the mudflats. I would like to visit the place every year and see the birds from such close quarters, she said. In fact, besides flamingos, numerous migratory wader birds, like sandpipers, godwits, stints and plovers, were also spotted in large numbers at Sewri.
Kunal Gupta, a working professional who came from Prabhadevi to watch the feathered beauties, said, I thought , I would be able to see only a few flocks, but I was suprised to see the migratory birds in such large numbers. It was a sight when they started pecking and eating in a frenzy.
Naturalists said flamingos breed in the Gujarats Rann of Kutch region and then migrate to Mumbai in search of food. The mass nesting of flamingos was first reported in 1883 by the late Maharao Khengarji of Kutch. However, in Mumbai their visit usually begins in November and December.
Winged Facts
* Sewri mudflats, Mahul jetty, Airoli bridge, Vashi bridge and – Uran are a few of the nesting places of flamingos in the city
* Flamingos fly down to the city in Nov-Dec and stay for a few months
* At the Flamingo Fest, which was organised by Bombay Natural History Society on Saturday, bird enthusiasts converged on Sewri mudflats where they spotted more than 15,000 of the winged visitors
* Flamingos breed in the Rann of Kutch area of Gujarat
* Other wader species that were also spotted at the Sewri mudflats were sandpipers, godwits, stints and plovers