Sanctuary |Cover Story
30 Sanctuary Asia, June 2019- which I see refl ected in every new person who joins the walks -
towards the shore life that no amount of reading could have done.
As we go to press, the future is uncertain. Supreme Court has
allowed existing work to continue but stopped all new reclamation
for now. The BMC is to appoint the Central Marine Fisheries
Research Institute to conduct a study on the project’s impact on
fi shing, and suggest mitigation measures. Independent activists
continue to protest, and historians are marking the origins of the
coastal road plan, fi rst proposed in 1870, and following the changes
the city has made in the time.
Nature will fi nd a way, and adapt to this ever-changing city,
but what form it will take and in how much time is unknown. The
ocean and its coast is all-powerful and will endure. Nature does not
need us to protect it; it will outlive us and then some, It’s us that
we’re fi ghting for, really.
Mumbai’s intertidal zone is as busy as the rest of this tired
city, its inhabitants living eventful lives, with a struggle not unlike
our own. And that sort of kinship, armed with information, might
aff ect change. Or it can try to pick up the pieces after devastation
strikes. Time will tell.
Sejal Mehta is a fi ction, wildlife and travel w
a consultant editor at Marine Life of Mumb
and is also founder at Snaggletooth, a
nature-inspired merchandise brand.
30 Sanctuary Asia, June 2019COASTAL COMMUNITIES IMPACTED BY THE
COASTAL ROAD AND LEGAL ISSUES:
A shore-walk survey report that documented marine-
intertidal biodiversity in Worli found species like crabs,
clams, oysters, commercial fishes that are actively
fished and consumed by artisanal fisherfolks of the
Worli fishing community. Similar trends were observed
at the oyster beds of Haji Ali rocky shores. Traditional
coastal communities in Mumbai continue to utilise
the shallow and rocky intertidal shores as a means of
livelihood and sustenance.
The coastal communities are being adversely and
negatively impacted due to the Coastal Road reclamation
because of the dumping of mud, rocks and debris and
by breaking of rocky beds like the oyster beds for the
Coastal Road Project. This will destroy the livelihoods of
such communities, and no mitigation or compensatory
measures have even been considered by the proponents
of the Coastal Road Project.By Sarita FernandesSHAUNAK MODIThe Costal Road Project work has begun in the form of soil testing structures, reclamation of coastlines and the razing of large chunks of the intertidal
zone that is protected under the Coastal Regulatory Zone (CRZ) notifi cation.safterdevastationwriter,
bai,