The issue of use of drones to shoot flamingos at TS Chanakya has once again come up among the greens after the release of Sikandar ka Muqaddar movie on the OTT platform Netflix. The movie has a scene wherein the flamingos are shown from a close angle which the environmentalists have alleged to be a drone shot.
The greens have also complained to the Mangrove Cell requesting to take up the issue with Navi Mumbai Police Commissioner, NRI Coastal police station and CIDCO.
‘A movie titled Sikandar ka Muqaddar., now being streamed on OTT platform Netflix, features a flamingos’ scene (timeline 1:03:44 to 1:03:54). The shot was obviously taken at TS Chanakya by a drone, flying over the flamingos resting on the wetland and mudflat,’ the complaint by NatConnect Foundation states.
“We have no objection whatsoever to the featuring the beauty of flamingos in the movie, but the use of drones flying over the resting birds is certainly objectionable,” BN Kumar, Director of NatConnect Foundation, said.
Kumar further added that drones with sharp blades makes a whirring noise that can disturb the resting birds. “The flamingos could get grievously injured or even killed if they come in contact with the flying machines,” Kumar said.
The mangrove cell had earlier ordered a probe against the drone shoots at TS Chanakya wetland following a complaint by NatConnect and fellow environmental groups.
“Flamingos figure in the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) red list of near-threaded to vulnerable and hence it is the duty of human being to take care of them and not expose them to further dangers,” said Jyoti Nadkarni, an avid birder and convenor of Kharghar Wetlands and Hills group.
The green groups have, therefore, requested the authorities take up this serious issue legally with Netflix and the movie makers as well as the Navi Mumbai Police Commissioner, NRI Police Station and CIDCO.
The environmental groups have been campaigning to save flamingos and their abodes as part of the city’s biodiversity which is under constant threat.
The State government has even appointed a high-level committee to study and report ways to conserve one of the key flamingo destinations, the DPS Flamingo Lake. The committee report is awaited, Kumar added.
