The new airport site is second home to over 150 species that travel from Siberia, Kenya and Europe.
The approval given by the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) on Monday for an airport in Navi Mumbai airport has disappointed environment activists and bird lovers. As flying is made more convenient for humans, the area, which was second home to over 150 species of birds from across the world, will now be destroyed.
The Kenyan flamingo, Siberian ducks and the Ruddy Turnstone from distant Europe are a few of the bird species that visit Navi Mumbai and the area around the proposed airport site every year. Migrating from such far-off regions in October each year, these birds stay put around the airport site till March.
“We expected a lot from Jairam Ramesh,” said Adesh Shivkar, director of Nature India and one of the city’s well-known bird watchers. “We hoped he would remain firm on his stand that the airport be shifted to another site — for the sake of not just the migratory birds but also the several other environmental concerns that were raised. But it seems that he, too, has chosen not to go against the flow. I do not know how concerns which were so immense not too long ago were resolved so suddenly.”
Environmentalists are also of the view that the government has not learnt anything from past experiences like that of the Mumbai floods, which had resulted from a similar environmental neglect.
“The airport will lead to nothing but the destruction of the present eco-system. Trying to replicate the eco-system of the airport site at another place will destroy the latter’s eco-system as it will not be natural,” said Prashant Shinde, executive director of Srushti Dyan, a city-based NGO working on conservation issues.
The black-wing stilt, godwit, heron, spoonbill and many other spectacular bird species had been visiting Navi Mumbai, staying there for around four to five months each year. But as construction for the new airport begins soon, the birds are bound to cancel their flight to India and bird lovers will be left waiting for them.
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