Panje-Dongri wetlands
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The Panje-Dongri wetlands is located in the coastal town of
Uran Uran is a coastal town and part of Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra state in Konkan division. It lies in the Raigad district, east of Mumbai across the Dharamtar Creek. Uran is primarily a fishing and agriculture village, which has developed into the ...
,
Navi Mumbai Navi Mumbai (), is a planned city situated on the west coast of the Indian subcontinent, located in the Konkan division of Maharashtra state, on the mainland of India. Navi Mumbai is part of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). The city is ...
in Raigad district of
Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...
in India. It is a major bird watching site in
Mumbai Metropolitan Region Mumbai Metropolitan Region (abbreviated to MMR and previously also as Greater Bombay Metropolitan Area), is a metropolitan area consisting of Mumbai (Bombay) and its satellite towns in the northern Konkan division, of the Maharashtra state in we ...
. The wetland is home to 1.4 lakhs migratory birds in the winter. It is the last surviving wetland at Uran. The core wetland area at Panje covers 213 hectares and consists of foraging and roosting areas of several bird species. The buffer area of 157 hectares is
mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evoluti ...
s. Panje consists of a mix of habitats including freshwater and saline
marshes A marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p Marshes can often be found at ...
, reeds, mangroves,
grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur natur ...
s and scrub — make it a fine birding place. The Panje wetlands are notified and protected under the Maharashtra National Wetland Atlas 2011. In 2015, The State Wildlife Board approved the creation of a bird sanctuary at Panje-Funde near Uran. A film documenting the flora and fauna of this wetland was made by Aishwarya Sridhar-a young wildlife film maker. The film is called ''Panje-The Last Wetland''.


Flora and fauna

The area is home to large numbers of coconut trees and mangroves. It is also the foraging and roosting area for several bird species like
lesser sand plover The lesser sand plover (''Charadrius mongolus'') is a small wader in the plover family of birds. The spelling is commonly given as lesser sand-plover, but the official British Ornithologists' Union spelling is "lesser sand plover". The genus ...
,
curlew sandpiper The curlew sandpiper (''Calidris ferruginea'') is a small wader that breeds on the tundra of Arctic Siberia. It is strongly migratory, wintering mainly in Africa, but also in south and southeast Asia and in Australia and New Zealand. It is a v ...
,
little stint The little stint (''Calidris minuta'' or ''Erolia minuta''), is a very small wader. It breeds in arctic Europe and Asia, and is a long-distance migrant, wintering south to Africa and south Asia. It occasionally is a vagrant to North America a ...
,
gull-billed tern The gull-billed tern (''Gelochelidon nilotica''), formerly ''Sterna nilotica'', is a tern in the family Laridae. It is widely distributed and breeds in scattered localities in Europe, Asia, northwest Africa, and the Americas. The Australian gull ...
,
brown-headed gull The brown-headed gull (''Chroicocephalus brunnicephalus'') is a small gull which breeds in the high plateaus of central Asia from Tajikistan to Ordos in Inner Mongolia. It is migratory, wintering on the coasts and large inland lakes of the India ...
,
black-headed gull The black-headed gull (''Chroicocephalus ridibundus'') is a small gull that breeds in much of the Palearctic including Europe and also in coastal eastern Canada. Most of the population is migratory and winters further south, but some birds res ...
, Heuglin's gull,
blue-tailed bee-eater The blue-tailed bee-eater (''Merops philippinus'') is a near passerine bird in the bee-eater family Meropidae. It is widely distributed across South and Southeast Asia where many populations are strongly migratory, and seen seasonally in many pa ...
,
lesser flamingo The lesser flamingo (''Phoeniconaias minor'') is a species of flamingo occurring in sub-Saharan Africa and western India. Birds are occasionally reported from further north, but these are generally considered Vagrancy (biology), vagrants. Charac ...
,
greater flamingo The greater flamingo (''Phoenicopterus roseus'') is the most widespread and largest species of the flamingo family. It is found in Africa, the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East, and in southern Europe. Taxonomy The greater flamingo was desc ...
,
purple moorhen The purple swamphen has been split into the following species: * Western swamphen, ''Porphyrio porphyrio'', southwest Europe and northwest Africa * African swamphen, ''Porphyrio madagascariensis'', sub-Saharan continental Africa and Madagascar * ...
,
Eurasian curlew The Eurasian curlew or common curlew (''Numenius arquata'') is a very large wader in the family Scolopacidae. It is one of the most widespread of the curlews, breeding across temperate Europe and Asia. In Europe, this species is often referred t ...
, ruddy shelduck, common shelduck,
Eurasian coot The Eurasian coot (''Fulica atra''), also known as the common coot, or Australian coot, is a member of the rail and crake bird family, the Rallidae. It is found in Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and parts of North Africa. It has a slaty-bla ...
, spot-billed bucks,
pheasant-tailed jacana The pheasant-tailed jacana (''Hydrophasianus chirurgus'') is a jacana in the monotypic genus ''Hydrophasianus''. Like all other jacanas, they have elongated toes and nails that enable them to walk on floating vegetation in shallow lakes, their p ...
,
bar-tailed godwit The bar-tailed godwit (''Limosa lapponica'') is a large and strongly migratory wader in the family Scolopacidae, which feeds on bristle-worms and shellfish on coastal mudflats and estuaries. It has distinctive red breeding plumage, long legs, an ...
, black-tailed godwit, ruff, marsh sandpipers,
scaly-breasted munia The scaly-breasted munia or spotted munia (''Lonchura punctulata''), known in the pet trade as nutmeg mannikin or spice finch, is a sparrow-sized estrildid finch native to tropical Asia. A species of the genus ''Lonchura'', it was formally desc ...
,
tricoloured munia The tricoloured munia (''Lonchura malacca'') is an estrildid finch, native to Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and southern China. The species has also introduced to the Caribbean, in Trinidad, Jamaica, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and V ...
,
red avadavat The red avadavat (''Amandava amandava''), red munia or strawberry finch, is a sparrow-sized bird of the family Estrildidae. It is found in the open fields and grasslands of tropical Asia and is popular as a cage bird due to the colourful plumage ...
,
Indian skimmer The Indian skimmer or Indian scissors-bill (''Rynchops albicollis'') is one of the three species that belong to the skimmer genus ''Rynchops'' in the family Laridae. They are somewhat tern-like but like other skimmers, have a short upper mandibl ...
, the Asian desert warbler, the bristled grassbird,
Caspian plover The Caspian plover (''Charadrius asiaticus'') is a wader in the plover family of birds. The genus name ''Charadrius'' is a Late Latin word for a yellowish bird mentioned in the fourth-century Vulgate. It derives from Ancient Greek ''kharadrios'' ...
and many more. Also, one can see as many as 800-900
flamingo Flamingos or flamingoes are a type of Wader, wading bird in the Family (biology), family Phoenicopteridae, which is the only extant family in the order Phoenicopteriformes. There are four flamingo species distributed throughout the Americas ...
es at Panje coastal village during the months of October–March. In 2018, two rare wetland birds of the species
red-necked phalarope The red-necked phalarope (''Phalaropus lobatus''), also known as the northern phalarope and hyperborean phalarope, is a small wader. This phalarope breeds in the Arctic regions of North America and Eurasia. It is migratory, and, unusually for a ...
were seen at Panje after a gap of 15 years. Mammals include the
Indian grey mongoose The Indian grey mongoose (''Urva edwardsii'') is a mongoose species native to the Indian subcontinent and West Asia. It is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. The grey mongoose inhabits open forests, scrublands and cultivated fields ...
,
gerbil The Mongolian gerbil or Mongolian jird (''Meriones unguiculatus'') is a small rodent belonging to the subfamily Gerbillinae. Their body size is typically , with a tail, and body weight , with adult males larger than females. The animal is use ...
,
jungle cat The jungle cat (''Felis chaus''), also called reed cat, swamp cat and jungle lynx, is a medium-sized cat native to the Middle East, the Caucasus, South and Southeast Asia and southern China. It inhabits foremost wetlands like swamps, littora ...
,
Indian fox The Bengal fox (''Vulpes bengalensis''), also known as the Indian fox, is a fox endemic to the Indian subcontinent from the Himalayan foothills and Terai of Nepal through southern India, and from southern and eastern Pakistan to eastern India an ...
and
Indian jackal The Indian jackal (''Canis aureus indicus''), also known as the Himalayan jackal is a subspecies of golden jackal native to Pakistan, India, Bhutan, Burma and Nepal. Its karyotype is quite different (2N=78; NF=84) from that of its Eurasian and Af ...
. Reptiles found are the common rat snake,
Indian cobra The Indian cobra (''Naja naja''), also known as the spectacled cobra, Asian cobra, or binocellate cobra, is a species of cobra found in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bhutan, and a member of the "big four" species that are ...
,
checkered keelback The checkered keelback (''Fowlea piscator''), also known commonly as the Asiatic water snake, is a common species in the subfamily Natricinae of the family Colubridae. The species is endemic to Asia. It is non-venomous. Description The eye of ...
, buff striped keelback,
rock python Rock Python (M'Gula) is a fictional character, a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character is usually depicted as a member of the Serpent Society. He first appeared in '' Captain America'' vol. 1 # ...
,
common krait The common krait (''Bungarus caeruleus''), also known as Bengal krait, is a species of highly venomous elapid snake of the genus ''Bungarus'' native to the Indian subcontinent. It is a member of the "Big Four" species that inflict the most snake ...
,
Russell's viper Russell's viper (''Daboia russelii''), is a venomous snake in the family Viperidae native to the Indian subcontinent and one of the big four snakes in India. It was described in 1797 by George Shaw and Frederick Polydore Nodder, and named af ...
and saw scaled viper.


Fishing

Panje wetland is rich in terms of fish catch. The Uran wetlands serve as a fish breeding ground and the main livelihood of the local people is fishing.


Controversy

Around 85% of
Uran Uran is a coastal town and part of Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra state in Konkan division. It lies in the Raigad district, east of Mumbai across the Dharamtar Creek. Uran is primarily a fishing and agriculture village, which has developed into the ...
’s wetlands have been destroyed. Recurring cases of mangrove destruction (9500 trees) and
reclamation Reclaim, reclaimed, reclaimer, reclaiming or reclamation means "to get something back". It may refer to: * Land reclamation, creating new land from oceans, riverbeds, or lake beds * Dedesertification, reversing of the land degradation in arid ...
of wetlands have happened at Uran. Recently illegal
landfills A landfill site, also known as a tip, dump, rubbish dump, garbage dump, or dumping ground, is a site for the disposal of waste materials. Landfill is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of the waste ...
are on the rise and the wetlands are being slowly assimilated in the coastal city. This unprecedented land development and urbanization are creating concerns about the impact on the environment. This is because the
wetlands A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...
serve as a natural sponge absorbing excess rainfall and doing its bit to reduce
pollution Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, the ...
. Wetlands are under threat due to exponential expansion of real-estate projects in Mumbai Now a day, land encroachment and land alteration are the important aspect of threats for Panje wetlands and the
Bombay Natural History Society The Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), founded on 15 September 1883, is one of the largest non-governmental organisations in India engaged in conservation and biodiversity research. It supports many research efforts through grants and publi ...
(BNHS) had also published a report stating the protection of Panje wetlands due to its proximity to the
Navi Mumbai International Airport Navi Mumbai International Airport, officially D. B. Patil International Airport, is an international airport being constructed in Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It will serve in parallel as an alternative with Mumbai's existing Chhatrapati S ...
. The wetland is a part of the Navi Mumbai Special Economic Zone and in the entire wetland a boundary has been created by the economic zone. In September 2018,
City and Industrial Development Corporation The City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra (CIDCO) is an Indian city planning agency and richest government authority in India which is formed and controlled by the Government of Maharashtra. CIDCO was formed on 17 March 197 ...
of
Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...
shut the high tide water ingress to the Panje Wetlands. The barrier was built in the year 1991 with help from
Indian Institute of Technology The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are central government owned public technical institutes located across India. They are under the ownership of the Ministry of Education of the Government of India. They are governed by the Institu ...
,
Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...
as a flood control mechanism. It shuts automatically during high tide and opens during low tide, remaining closed throughout the monsoon months. However, in the last week of September, some gates were damaged and the barrier was shut down, starving water supply into the mangroves. Around 60% of the Panje wetlands dried up. Navi Mumbai residents and environmentalists filed a complaint with the state highlighting the development corporation's actions. This led to the HC appointed state mangrove committee to issue directions to stop reclamation activities at Uran to protect bird habitats. On October 6, 2018, development corporation opened 10 of the 76 sluice gates. But environmentalists complained it wasn’t enough to sustain the wetland. Vanashakti (a non-governmental organization) filed a contempt petition against the development corporation under its original petition to safeguard wetlands in Maharashtra. On October 10, 2018, a day before the Bombay High Court appointed wetland grievance redressal committee was to hear the matter, the development corporation vice chairman and managing director instructed his engineering team to open the majority of the gates at Panje. Seventy gates were opened and the wetland, mangroves, and holding pond area were partially restored. Panje is the last surviving wetland of Uran.


References

{{reflist Geography of Mumbai Wetlands of India