A few million years ago, 114 million to be precise, the trees in the mountains started walking towards the sea. The pioneers among them perished, as the sea was too saline for them to survive. Their descendants, over the next couple of million years, adapted themselves admirably to thrive in these hostile conditions. For this they developed special roots with holes that rose from the seawater like periscopes so that they could breathe. They designed special clinging roots that came down from the stem that would prevent them from getting washed away by the tidal waves. And they even manufactured a few saline-excreting glands that would remove excess sea-salt from their bodies. These amazing floating trees came to be known as mangroves.
With as many as 4500 sq kms of these tidal forests lining our coasts, India is blessed with a powerful line of defense against storms, cyclones and tsunamis. In fact India, along with Bangladesh, has the richest mangroves in the world; with Sunderbans being the largest and the most beautiful of them all.
There are over 16 species of mangroves in India, each one with an exotic name: red mangrove, yellow mangrove, grey mangrove, river mangrove, orange mangrove, mangrove apple, etc. A fragile eco-system subsists in these harsh conditions: fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, butterflies, and even mammals like tigers. And mangroves also form the breeding ground and the nursery for a variety of marine life: crabs, fishes and shrimps.
Right in the middle of our bustling metropolis, on the western banks of Thane Creek, lies the last surviving pristine mangroves in the city of Mumbai: Godrej Mangroves. Part of the single-largest mangrove belt in Mumbai, it forms the second lung of our city after Sanjay Gandhi National Park in Borivali, and is protected and managed by the Godrej Trust since 1985.
A walk with Maya Mahajan, the Manager of these mangroves, was my initiation into this amazing world that exists in the no-man's land between land and sea. Soon after we entered the protected area, we were welcomed by a wild boar. Maya explained that in this mangrove alone, they have counted 206 species of birds, 30 species of reptiles and 76 species of butterflies. Not to mention the jackals, wild boar and mongoose that have been sighted here.
The view from the watchtower was breathtaking. Endless mangroves on the west abruptly stopped by a row of skyscrapers in the far distance. And on the east, mangroves stretching as far as Thane Creek. Maya told me the difficulty of constantly patrolling and monitoring this vast stretch of 'prime property'. And about the passion and commitment required to restore degraded patches of these coastal forests.
Capable of surviving in the seawater polluted by sewage and effluents, these mangroves are extremely forgiving. In fact they purify the very waters they live in, and even release copious quantities of life-giving oxygen into the polluted air we breathe in. To make us understand and appreciate their role in our lives, the Soonabai Godrej Trust conducts intensive research in mangrove ecology, and the Interpretation Centre in the Complex imparts this knowledge to nature lovers through conducted tours, slide shows, film screenings and interactive seminars.
My newfound love took me on a sojourn to the endangered mangroves of Dahisar and Airoli, and to Navi Mumbai where an immaculate walking track has been laid along a winding stretch of dense-green mangroves. I even caught a glimpse of the flamingos that have landed there this year, after being rendered homeless by the reckless filling of the wetlands of Uran. Then I travelled along the 1100 km coastal stretch of Konkan where I found these fascinating floating forests among estuaries, bays and creeks. All the way up to Goa, which is blessed with the most photogenic mangrove of them all: the Salim Ali Sanctuary in Chorao near Panaji.
A recent newspaper report talked about builders cutting off the seawater that flows into the mangroves of Mumbai in an attempt to strangulate them and claim the land as their own. And I wondered if Godrej Mangroves will soon become the solitary green island of mangroves floating in a diabolic sea teeming with land-sharks. I hope not.
