About 28,000 people of Keti Bunder may suffer a major displacement in the next 10 years as the sea is fast eroding their land. With the construction of dams and barrages upstream and stoppage of water downstream, the pace of sea intrusion has increased over the decades. The area has become highly vulnerable to cyclones and tsunamis as mangroves that serve as natural barriers to these calamities are being uprooted at an alarming rate. These facts were highlighted during a tour of journalists to the deltoid region. The visit was organised by World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Karachi.

A week after fishermen complained of oil wastes polluting the Mahul creek and after the RPF police instructed Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) officials

Amid pouring rain, about 500 residents of Versova

The ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) has just two day ago given its in principle clearance for the Rs 4,000-crore Navi Mumbai international airport. MoEF, in March, had deferred environment clearance for the project on the grounds that the airport would involve reclamation of low-lying areas in an ecologically fragile zone as well as destruction of several hectares of mangroves.

Large-scale destruction of mangroves contributed heavily to the damage inflicted by cyclone Nargis in Myanmar last week, says the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Myanmar, home to the eighth largest mangrove area in the world, has lost large swathes of mangroves over the last four decades. FAO estimates from 2005 put the loss at around 70,000 hectares between 1972 and 2005, but 2008 estimates suggest this could be much higher.

Just north of Mumbai, along the creek at Kopar Khairne in Navi Mumbai is the story of how a fragile ecosystem is being systematically destroyed. Despite a High Court ruling against cutting of mangroves, amid a continuing real estate boom in Navi Mumbai, there is clear evidence of debris being dumped on what was once a lush mangrove forest here.