Today, (26 September 2020) I attended the webinar on the coastal reclamation happening in Mumbai. It discussed about the Coastal Road project, what the coastal road is, and why it’s harmful for Mumbai. Panelist were Debi Goenka, trustee of Conservation Action Trust; Zoru Bathena, an Environmentalist; Zaman Ali, advocate in Mumbai High Court; Shweta Wagh, associate professor, urban researcher, ethnographer; and Hussain Indorwala, urban researcher.
Discussion started with a question: What is coastal road? Coastal Road is a project which proposes the road stretched across the sea coast of Mumbai by reclamation of the sea land. Coastal Road is something that British people were fascinated about. It might be appropriate to build such road in 1900’s, but today, we know that it is not good anymore.
This road is going to be built on reclamation land. Mumbai has seen lots of reclamations, but we should ask ourselves a question, is reclamation really necessary? Because of each reclamation occurred in past, we have seen some serious and visible consequences, such as water clogging, major floods, less fishing area, mass damage to marine life, etc.
Biggest victim of this reclamation would be fishermen. Reclamation land contains 40 intertidal and subtidal areas where majority of fishing area and fishes are. Fishermen Associations along with Shweta Wagh and some environmentalists made an appeal to Mumbai High Court as the project site include many of their ancestral fishing sites.
After hearing study reports from various environmentalists and fisheries institutes, High court gave their decision in favor of fishermen. BMC did have CRZ clearance for the mega project, but didn’t have Ecological and Wildlife Clearance. High court gave orders to not start the project until they get Ecological and Wildlife Clearance. BMC then made an appeal to Supreme Court, which after a year, gave go ahead to the project.
So, why it is important to save these 40 intertidal and subtidal areas? What lies in it?
Well, in general, intertidal and subtidal areas are ecologically rich zones. Our Mumbai sea coast is no different. These 40 areas have plenty of species including species which are listed as Schedule 1, such as Corals. What’s this Schedule 1? We have these lists called Schedule 1, 2, 3 and 4 which have names of various species which are endangered, endemic, near extinction, and so on and so forth. Construction in the habitats of Schedule 1 species is strictly prohibited. Only under two clauses, we can build something there. One, if that habitat is dangerous to human, or two, for educational purposes.
BMC says there is no wildlife and biodiversity beneath or on this proposed 111 hectare of sea. On contrast, various other reports and research show that there are various species of fishes, invertebrates, vertebrates, and much more. Reports they showed didn’t have proper study of natural history, wildlife, marine life of that place, neither of fishermen, their residence, and 800 years old fishing areas where large amount of fish breeding happens.
So, what happens if despite all of this, the reclamation occurs?
If reclamation happens, all ancestral fishing sites will be gone. All ecological balance will be destroyed. All marine life present there will be destroyed. Besides all this, it would be huge risk for the city itself. By reclamation, we will be pushing sea backwards, which may result in sea level rise and flooding in certain areas. Force of tides and waves can also be a huge problem for structure of reclamation and construction above it. Global sea level is rising very fast. It may cause some really bad impacts on city.
And, at what cost we will get this?
Coastal road will encourage people to buy private vehicles. This will result in more traffic congestion. This road is not an ultimate and cheapest solution for traffic congestion. There are plenty of other ways to solve the problem. Capacity of the coastal road would be much less compared to the number of vehicles that travel every day in Mumbai. It would be just like any other road of Mumbai. Despite this, do you think this is solution for increasing pollution of the city? Then think of the pollution that reclamation process may cause. It is enormous.
And this does not come for less. It is a lot of money that is going into project, which we pay to the government as tax.
I understand that there are many other topics which need much more attention than the collapsing ecology, irreversible damage we are doing to our precious coastline, impact on the income sources of fishermen and money that need to be spent on more important issues; but please, trust me, these are some issues which need your attention.
- Shantanu Shinde
s@infogelic.com
Web: https://www.infogelic.com
