Flamingos start flocking Sewri-Mahul mudflats

For bird watchers and nature enthusiasts, there is good news. Flamingos have started arriving at the creeks surrounding Mumbai.

“It has been a week or so since flamingos have started coming to the Sewri-Mahul mudflats. Currently, it's only a few of them, but in the coming weeks, the flock will increase,” said Atul Sathe, spokesperson of Bombay Natural History Society.

During the peak time, ie January-February, the population of greater and lesser flamingos reaches anywhere around 15,000-20,000 only at the mudflats of Sewri-Mahul area. A few more hundred of these pink feathered birds can be spotted at other places surrounding the metropolis, such as the mangrove swamps of Vikhroli, Bhandup, Airoli, Thane and Vashi. Not just flamingos but other birds too can be found, including various species of gul, tern, egret, heron, plover and sandpiper.

An annual opportunity for bird lovers, several groups organise visits for watching and photographing.

Flamingos feed on shrimp and blue-green algae, which is healthy, found at Sewri despite the industrial pollution in the creek.

The migratory birds come from as far as Siberia to the tidal flats of Mumbai. Before coming to the city, they go to the Rann of Kutch, where, from August to October, their breeding cycle commences — mating, making mud nests, laying eggs and its hatching.

At the end of 2011, hundreds of flamingos had died in the Rann of Kutch due to electrocution from high tension wires. Thereafter, there were reports of the birds being poached/hunted to be later sold as meat.