Rahul Khot, deputy director, BNHS, stated, “The primary time that a lot of higher flamingos was once seen, round 8,000 of them in Sewai area, was once in 1994 through a Mumbai Port Believe legitimate. There was no devoted find out about since.”

Khot added that at this time, he can’t pinpoint a reason why at the back of the upward push within the quantity, however one of the most speculation are: Lack of their ancient feeding grounds, building up of their inhabitants, or discovering the Thane creek richer and resourceful. In Sewri and Nhava, 17,000 and 227 higher flamingos had been recorded respectively. Juvenile (5%) and sub-adult (21%) numbers had been not up to the ones of adults around the 3 areas.

It is a sharp building up, particularly for the reason that yr prior to that (2020-21) when the higher flamingo abundance was once the bottom (324-569) throughout all 3 areas and not more than 2 in keeping with cent of the inhabitants recorded within the previous two years.

The inhabitants of the lesser flamingos has witnessed a marginal building up throughout all 3 places – 65,000 at TCFS, 25,000 at Sewri, and 9000 at Nhava from December 2021 to March 2022.

“Within the ultimate couple of years, we seen a smaller selection of higher flamingos. One of the vital causes could be our lack of ability to behavior surveys from March to Might because of the pandemic restrictions. The perfect selection of flamingos is most often seen all over those 3 months,” stated Rahul Khot, deputy director, BNHS, including that his staff was once lately investigating the explanations for this sharp building up.

Khot added, “Better flamingos desire freshwater and estuary environments, which Mumbai provides in masses, due to its creeks and inland wetlands.”

Of the six species of flamingos on this planet, two are present in India: the tallest of them, the higher flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus) and the smallest one, the lesser flamingo (Phoeniconaias minor) between November and Might. Better flamingos have black-tipped gentle pinkish beaks, yellowish eyes, and pinkish-white frame color. They have got a blended feeding trend and feed on bugs, small fishes and algae. Their neck is an ideal S-shape whilst the lesser flamingos are extra crimson, with darkish beaks and pink eyes, and most effective feed on algae. Their neck is inverted (J formed). The vast majority of flamingos that come to Mumbai are lesser flamingos.

Roughly 1,33,000 flamingos had been seen this yr (all over April) around the TCFS, Sewri-Nhava and adjoining zones, stated Khot. When compared, 1,03,000 flamingos had been noticed in 2020-21 (all over February), 96,400 all over 2019-20 (February), and 1,20,000 all over 2018-19 (March).

Flamingos in most cases consult with MMR wetlands from November to Might most commonly for feeding functions from breeding websites within the Gujarat area in addition to Iran. Migration from breeding grounds begins after the monsoon when water-filled areas get started drying up. Then again, owing to the nice availability of water during the last few years via wintry weather, their arrivals had been not on time.

Since 2017, BNHS is undertaking flamingo survey within the area as part of a decadal survey challenge (as much as 2027) – to map and rely Mumbai’s migratory birds and to check the have an effect on of the Mumbai Trans-Harbour Hyperlink on flamingos and different avifauna within the Thane Creek, Sewri, Nhava, and surrounding spaces, in addition to determine mitigation measures.
“In earlier years, the TCFS reported over one lakh flamingos, together with this remarkable file of the utmost selection of higher flamingos this yr. We intend to offer protection to those migratory birds and their habitat for posterity. We had additionally proposed certification of TCFS for Ramsar Web page (Wetlands of World Significance) and the similar has been cleared through Leader Minister Uddhav Thackeray,” stated Virendra Tiwari, Further Fundamental Leader Conservator of Forests, Mangrove Mobile.