Thane sanctuary proposed as MMR’s Ramsar site
- Maharashtra State government proposes Thane Flamingo Sanctuary to be the first Ramsar site in Mumbai Metropolitan Region.
- The Maha govt also plans to set up a task force to conduct a fresh exercise to identify, demarcate, and preserve wetlands left out of coastal zones and inland areas in the State.
- The Mangrove Cell also plans to set up mangrove parks at Gorai and Dahisar.
Thane Creek:
- It is an inlet in the shoreline of the Arabian Sea that isolates the city of Mumbai from the Indian mainland.
- The creek is divided into two parts: the Ghodbunder-Thane stretch and the Thane -Trombay (Uran) stretch.
- The creek has been formed due to seismic faults lying below it which runs from Uran to Thane.
Thane Creek Flamingo Sanctuary
- It is on the western bank of the creek, between the Airoli and the Vashi bridges connecting Mumbai and Navi Mumbai.
- It consists of 896 hectares of mangrove forests and 794 hectares of waterbodies.
- It came into being in 2015 and is Maharashtra’s second marine sanctuary, after Malvan.
- It is recognized as an “Important Bird Area” by the Bombay Natural History Society.
- The TCFS has been attracting flamingos in large numbers since 1994.
- By November every year, over 30,000 flamingos occupy the mudflats and the bordering mangroves.
- They stay till May, after which most of them migrate to Bhuj in Gujarat for breeding.
- Besides supporting a large congregation of flamingos, the area is a refuge for many resident and migratory birds.
- It is home to twelve mangrove species, 167 species of birds such as Flamingos, 45 fish, 67 insect and mammals like jackals and 59 species of butterflies.
- In all, 200 species have been reported here, even globally threatened species such as the greater spotted eagle and others such as osprey.
Ramsar Convention on Wetlands
- It was signed in 1971 in the Iranian city of Ramsar and is one of the oldest inter-governmental accord for preserving the ecological character of wetlands.
- It is also known as the Convention on Wetlands.
- Its aim is to develop and maintain an international network of wetlands which are important for the conservation of global biological diversity and for sustaining human life through the maintenance of their ecosystem components, processes and benefits.
- Wetlands declared as Ramsar sites are protected under strict guidelines of the convention.
- As of july 2021, there are 42 Ramsar sites in India.