Mumbai: Official inspection confirms water inlets blocked at DPS Flamingo lake

Illegal bund at DPS lake that is blocking water flow

An official inspection has confirmed that a 600-metre bund in the eco-sensitive area has blocked free water flow to the 30-acre DPS Flamingo Lake at Nerul in Navi Mumbai. The inspection was conducted on Wednesday at the instance of the Bombay High Court-appointed Mangrove Protection and Conservation Committee following a complaint by NGO NatConnect Foundation that the bund is flanked by mangroves on one side and the wetland on the other.

"The inspection team confirmed to us that the bund and a road on it fall under the mangrove buffer zone," NatConnect director, B N Kumar, said. The team, which will submit its report to the mangrove committee, did not speak with the media. Kumar said the bund was also not in a complete stretch and there was a huge gap at the northern end of the lake, as per the Maharashtra Remote Sensing Application Centre (MRSAC) map. The gap was subsequently closed burying the water inlet to the lake.

"Three water inlets which were created under the bund were also blocked, rendering the lake totally dry," he said. "CIDCO, the landlord of Navi Mumbai, has created the buffer zone apparently to show that the lake area is a developable area as shown in the city planner's development plan," said Sandeep Sareen, managing committee member of the Navi Mumbai Environment Preservation Society (NMEPS).

"But this stand is not tenable since the Flamingo Lake also serves as an urban sponge, holding the excess tidal and flood waters," he added. On a petition filed by the NMEPS, the Bombay High Court in November 2018 directed CIDCO not to stop the free flow of water to the lake; but CIDCO violated the order. Documents obtained by NatConnect show that CIDCO violated its own undertaking given while starting the work on the Nerul jetty, stating that it would not interfere with the flow of the creek water. The undertaking followed diktats from the Centre as well as the state environmental departments not to interfere with the natural flow of the tidal water.

"CIDCO must be made accountable for this violation," NMEPS President, Virender Kumar Gandhi, said. Meanwhile, the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC), which has started clearing the water channels, has begun laying a 450-mm pipeline cutting through the bund along the lake. "NMMC also needs to clear the huge blocks at all the inlets to the lake so water can enter it," Gandhi asserted.