Mumbai: Though Mumbai is gradually becoming a full-fledged concrete jungle, it’s never too late to create awareness among children on conservation and that is why the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) has organised competitions in painting and poem and slogan writing.
The BNHS plans to distribute prizes to winners during the Flamingo Festival that is held on February 21 at the Sewri jetty.
Thousands of flamingoes arrive at Mumbai’s wetlands to make their temporary home in the mangroves around the city.
The BNHS has sent letters to recognised public and private schools in Mumbai and Thane asking principals to encourage pupils from Standards 5 to 8 to send in their entries: painting, poem or slogan on nature conservation in Marathi, Hindi or English.
BNHS-India, headquartered in Mumbai and working across India, is one of the largest NGOs in the subcontinent engaged in nature conservation through biodiversity research and environment education since 1883.
The organisation has been constantly pointing out how people are increasingly facing social, environmental and health-related problems, primarily in urban areas, due to environmental destruction, deforestation, biodiversity loss, temperature increase, erratic rainfall, pollution, cyclones and erosion.
“It is unfortunate that in a city such as Mumbai, which has a culture of sustainability such as traditional fishing in non-monsoon months, unsustainable developmental practices have ruined the coastal environment,” says Homi Khusrokhan, President, BNHS. “In future, if we are to avoid a catastrophe such as the one that occurred on July 26, 2005, it is extremely important to conserve nature,” he added.
Wetlands are essential ecological features in any coastal landscape as they are home to hundreds of birds along with fishes, mammals and insects. The Sewri mudflats — a neighbourhood towards South Mumbai with a jetty and dock — are annually visited by Flamingoes and other rare bird species. They arrive in the city in late November and remain till May and depart just after monsoon.
The BNHS is focusing on wetland conservation through education and awareness programmes in educational institutes and coastal communities in and around Mumbai in association with the Mumbai Port Trust.
