Sahyadrica

by Vishal Rasal I have visited Sewri only twice, and on both occasions I’ve asked myself: what on Earth are these birds doing here? There are answers that are quite startling. In this article, Vishal talks about Sewri and its renowned visitors, Lesser and Greater Flamingos, the plausible reasons why they chose this place, and what we can deduce about their future from recent updates on the conservation-versus-development debate on Sewri. In Vishal’s words… Flamingos against the rising sun in Sewri, Mumbai The city of Mumbai is never short of surprises. From skyscrapers cluttering the precarious coasts of the Arabian Sea to the forest fringes of Sanjay Gandhi National Park, this city is one of the handful few to harbour great biodiversity sandwiched between a large human population. And just as Mumbai proudly boasts of whales off its coasts and leopards in its forests, it is also peculiarly famous for its purple-winged migrants – flamingos. A city of flamingos agains...

Millions of years since our ancestors first drank from a pond, bathed in a stream, built a house by a lake, grew vegetables along a river, and channeled water for their home – today, in this anthropocene era, I sit and I wonder: whether a bird now shares its wetland with man, or does man lend his wetland to the bird. The bird is not your everyday business-man, or your money-lender. A bird here is Mother Nature. Chapter I: The Built Wetland The dancing bird Jayakwadi Dam, Paithan, Aurangabad District, Maharashtra A few centuries ago when the world was slightly different than it is today, man in many regions built temples, castles, and romanced, and wrote poems under the tree – always by the waters. This water was visited by many a creature beside man. Beside man, many depended on it, for food, for breeding, for life. And so the harmony between man, water, and his neighbours, was in epitome of its relationship – until that day when we learnt to own wetlands for our purpose,...