‘The Mithi is counting its last days’

The three-hour trail usually starts at the break of dawn with breakfast. On the agenda to visit is a recycling unit, reclaimed land, a diminishing mangrove jungle and a creek— not what you would usually expect on a tour of a river. “But then, the Mithi isn’t a river anymore. It’s Mumbai’s largest stormwater drain,” says Vivek Dalvi, an activist with the Mithi Jal Yatra, which organises these tours. “The Mithi swallows 295 tonnes of waste every day from the city.” The jal yatra was started three months ago to create awareness about saving the much-abused river.

It is one of the many recent tours that focus on the squalid underbelly of Mumbai. An agonising stench, slums, unattended garbage, a drainage system in ruins are the sightseeing halts. “The yatra is a part of our agitation. We have been fighting for the Mithi for the past 19 years—long before people even knew that a river ran through Mumbai,” says activist Girish Raut.

Dalvi’s first halt is near Dharavi, where plastic and metal-waste recycling units routinely dump hazardous material into the river. The next is near the airport, where the Mithi has been reclaimed to build roads. About 90 per cent of the toxic material in the river is oil dumped after use. The river has been exploited, and now it’s payback time, says Dalvi.  Raut adds that the 2005 deluge is not the last Mumbai will see. “The city is choking the river. The catchment area, which formed near a hill in Borivali has been obstructed by concrete constructions. The Bandra Reclamation area has blocked the river’s run into the sea. The mangrove jungles are disappearing. It’s a disaster waiting to happen,” he says.

An 8th century Marathi document called Marcavathichi Bakhar, mentions the Mithi as a river of ‘sweet water’ running along villages like Kurla and Mahim. “This river has been running for centuries and we have no right to obstruct it. We are not only killing the river but everything that lives in and around it,” says Raut. Reports from 1978 named over 250 species of birds around the Mithi that survived on the fish available in the river. Raut says 50 years ago, even crocodiles lived on the banks.

The tour ends with a small discussion. When the Bandra Reclamation area was built, Raut and his team of volunteers gathered all the fisherfolk from the city and organised a dharna by parking their boats for three days near the shore in 1996. The reclamation area was limited to what it is now. “If it had continued, the outlet for the river would’ve been completely choked,” he adds.

For those who want to know more, there is a longer versions of the trail: A nine-hour trip which also covers Borivali and Powai. But these days, the tours are only on request. “Tours alone won’t help. It is important for people to join our agitation and spread the word. We have only a year or two to save the Mithi. The river is counting its last days,” says Raut.