In an unfortunate incident, four flamingos died when they dashed against a signboard erected along the pond behind DPS Public School in Seawoods, Nerul in the early hours of Thursday. According to the eye witnesses, the flamingos were flying low and could not recognise the signboard since it was dark.
“We were on routine morning walk when at around 6.45 am the unfortunate incident occurred. The flamingos were going to the other side of the road and a flock of around 20-25 birds were flying low. Suddenly, around 10 flamingos hit a signboard and fell down. We immediately rushed to the spot and called the fire brigade which in turn deputed a volunteer from Planet Earth Foundation to help in rescuing the birds,” Pritika Bharadwaj, a resident of NRI Complex Phase-I and one of the eye witnesses, said.
“It was dark and it seems that the birds failed to recognise the board and dashed against it. Some of them looked disoriented from the flock and were seen walking along the road. We along with the volunteer took them along the road side and calmed them for 10-15 minutes after which they flew back,” Bharadwaj said and added that the civic authorities should erect reflective lights along the pond so that birds can recognise the hurdles, if any, and such incidents do not occur.
4 Flamingos Die After Crashing Into Signboard | FPJ
When contacted, Dhiraj Gaikwad, an animal lover who runs the NGP Planet Earth Foundation, said, “I received the call at around 6.35 am from the fire brigade. Since I was travelling to Pune, I sent one of my colleagues to rescue the flamingos. He was able to rescue some but unfortunately four birds could not survive. We immersed the birds into the lake itself after completing all the formalities.”
“This is a highly shocking incident since it happened on the eve of the World Wetlands Day,” said Director of NatConnect Foundation, B N Kumar who has been running a campaign to save the migratory bird habitats. “The huge canopy type board on the jetty road is apparently a big hindrance as it has been erected in the bird path,” Kumar pointed out and called for dismantling it immediately.
People going in there are anyways aware of the route and it is meaningless to have such a big structure. CIDCO can have it at the T-junction of NRI Seawoods traffic signal, Kumar said and suggested that a small roadside sign should suffice on the jetty bridge.
NatConnect, which was the first to demand Flamingo City status to Navi Mumbai, has already requested NMMC to take over the DPS Lake and maintain it as a flamingo abode. The then Commissioner had written to CIDCO to this effect and even worked out a plan with Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) to protect the wetland, but CIDCO refused to hand over the lake. Kumar has now written to the Chief Minister seeking his intervention in the matter to save the wetland and the biodiversity.
