Mumbai: Every year, as November approaches, a spectacle unfolds as thousands of flamingos embark on their migration from Gujarat’s Rann of Kutch to the wetlands of Mumbai, seeking food. The sprawling mudflats in Mumbai transform into a temporary sanctuary for these avian visitors to rest in.
However, over the past few years, their journey to Mumbai and back has become increasingly arduous, and so has their stay due to rapid development activities and shrinking mudflats in the country’s financial capital.
On Monday, an Emirates flight carrying over 300 passengers collided with a flock of flamingos mid-air, resulting in the death of at least 39 birds. All passengers inside the plane were safe, but the aircraft sustained damage.
The incident came to light when residents of Ghatkopar, an eastern suburb of Mumbai also part of the funnel zone of aviation, discovered flamingo carcasses strewn across the road.
Following the death of flamingos, the airline spokesperson said that the airline company is cooperating with the authorities on the matter, according to a report by news agency ANI.
“Emirates can confirm that EK508 from Dubai to Mumbai on 20 May was involved in a bird strike incident upon landing. The aircraft landed safely and all passengers and crew disembarked without injury; however, sadly, a number of flamingos were lost and Emirates is cooperating with the authorities on the matter,” a statement from an Emirates spokesperson noted.
“Emirates apologises for any inconvenience caused. The safety of our passengers and crew is of the utmost importance and will not be compromised,” the statement added.
Authorities are now investigating whether the flamingos strayed from their usual migratory path into the aircraft’s trajectory. Meanwhile, local environmentalists and activists are calling for an in-depth investigation, alleging that the city’s urban development strategists have overlooked prior warnings of such events.
“This is a first-of-its-kind big accident that has happened but it is not surprising considering the number of birds we get and the developmental activities around the site. Some day, it was bound to happen,” said Mrugank Prabhu, a researcher at the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS).
Mumbai’s Thane Creek area, stretching from Vitawa to Uran, has witnessed a steady increase in flamingo numbers.
According to Prabhu, nearly one lakh flamingos comprising mainly two species, the greater and lesser flamingos, keep flying to the Thane Creek Flamingo Sanctuary, which is a Ramsar site — sites listed on the List of Wetlands of International Importance. Thane Creek was designated a Ramsar site in 2022 for its marine and biodiversity. It is one of the largest creeks in Asia that holds migratory birds.
The lesser flamingos, which thrive in brackish or saline waters, are predominantly found in the Thane Creek area, while their greater counterparts are adaptable to freshwater environments, including dams, he explained.
Going into July, flamingos, along with other migratory birds, commence their return to Gujarat, only to begin their return to Mumbai by August.
Meanwhile, Monday’s incident is not an isolated event. In the past month alone, several flamingos have been found injured or dead due to various human-related hazards, including vehicular collisions and entanglement with infrastructure.
In the last week of April, 12 injured flamingos were found in mangroves near the Seawoods area of Navi Mumbai, of which five died during treatment. Before that, a flamingo was hit by a speeding vehicle on Palm Beach Road, and in February, four flamingos crashed into a hoarding near Nerul jetty and died
ThePrint reached Vijay Singhal, Managing Director, City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO), the planning authority for Navi Mumbai, via calls. This report will be updated if and when a response is received.
Flamingo movement
According to BNHS’s Prabhu, the Thane Creek area is a haven for 54 species of migratory birds, with flamingos accounting for a significant portion (1 lakh) of the approximately 2-2.5 lakh birds that visit annually.
However, according to BNHS, this year there has been a slight decline in the number of flamingos, which stood at around 80,000.
“This number depends on the favourable conditions they get in Gujarat. If we have good rainfall, the number coming to Mumbai will be less. But in case of drought-like conditions in Gujarat, the number can swell. Because in those conditions, waterbodies dry up pretty early in Gujarat. With no water and no food, the flamingos have to shift to Thane Creek. This also affects their breeding number,” Prabhu told ThePrint.
According to Deepak Apte, former director at BNHS and now managing director at Srushti Conservation Foundation — a Mumbai-based not-for-profit company working on conservation research — Monday’s incident coincided with optimal conditions for the flamingos’ nocturnal migration, facilitated by the illumination of the full moon on 23 May.
Flamingos typically embark on their movements post-sunset, a time when the calmness of the night reduces the risk of predators, making it safer for them to travel.
“They are social birds and move in flocks. When the lunar light is full, it helps them in migration. And during migration, they can go to the altitude where an accident can happen,” Apte told ThePrint.
Typically, flamingos navigate between their feeding zones and resting grounds at altitudes ranging from 500 to 700 feet. This pattern is observed primarily during their migration into and out of the region, explained Prabhu.
In Mumbai, the mudflats serve as their feeding grounds, while the wetlands provide a place for rest. The flamingos’ movement between these sites is synchronised with the tidal oscillation — seeking refuge in the wetlands during high tides and descending to the mudflats to feed when the tide recedes. This tidal movement dictates their daily and nightly routine, said Prabhu.
However, due to mass and rapid urbanisation, the wetlands are becoming smaller in number. “They (flamingos) are squeezed into smaller spaces and this is impacting the movement of the flock,” said Apte.
He added that the flamingos’ migratory patterns involved an inward movement to Mumbai starting in October, peaking around January-February, and an outward movement beginning in May.
For the breeding areas, these migratory birds, including flamingos, move northwards. The northern region could mean all the way up to the Himalayas and the Arctic region as multiple species have different breeding areas, Prabhu told ThePrint.
“We do monitor them from August onwards and also do creek surveys till May. We also count their high-tide roosting areas. Their cycle continues between roosting areas and mudflats until they start migrating back,” he explained.
‘Incident might get repeated’
Following Monday’s incident, local authorities and the forest department were alerted by the residents, which not only led to authorities to initiate a probe but also prompted environmentalists to raise concerns about ongoing development works in the city.
B.N. Kumar, director NatConnect Foundation, an NGO, in a release issued Tuesday, said he has sent an email to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), and sought a high-level probe to ascertain how the Emirates aircraft hit the birds and whether the pilot could not notice the flock on his radar.
“Had any passenger been affected due to the bird hit, it would have made global headlines, but the death of 40 flamingos does not seem to bother the authorities, urban planners in particular,” Kumar said.
The NGO — which along with other environment-focused organisations, has been conducting a series of campaigns to save Mumbai’s biodiversity, wetlands and mangroves — cautioned that the upcoming international airport in neighbouring Navi Mumbai could also be prone to such incidents.
Like Kumar, environmentalist Stalin D. of Vanshakti, a Mumbai-based NGO, also wrote to the Ministry of Environment, Climate and Forest Change (MOEF&CC) and other authorities, highlighting two causes of aircraft bird strikes. ThePrint has seen the letter.
According to him, the construction of tall towers and hosting power lines at a height could be one of the causes the flock had to fly over a great height thus coming in between the flight path.
He also blamed CIDCO, the planning authority for Navi Mumbai, saying, “It destroyed thousands of hectares of coastal wetlands hosting waterfowl and flamingos. Flamingos and waterfowl are now concentrated in five waterbodies in Navi Mumbai. Reclamation and construction on wetlands continue despite protests,” he said.
BNHS’s Prabhu, too, pointed to various factors contributing to these incidents, such as high-tension wires and light pollution, which may disorient the birds and force them to fly at higher altitudes, increasing the risk of future collisions.
“They are crisscrossing everywhere. There are LED lights in the area, which disorient them most of the time, so the birds have to fly at a higher altitude and also the air traffic is very high. And this type of incident might get repeated, you cannot deny that,” he told ThePrint.
Amid these concerns, during the construction of the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL)-Atal Setu, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) heeded environmentalists’ advice to protect the flamingos’ mudflat habitats as much as possible.
The MMRDA also engaged BNHS to oversee the construction’s effects on flamingos and other birds, committing Rs 32 crore over a decade to lessen any adverse impacts on flamingos. With Atal Setu now operational, flamingos are seen around the bridge.
Meanwhile, environmentalists also expressed apprehension regarding the upcoming Navi Mumbai airport in the Ulwe area, situated amid critical and densely populated resting and feeding grounds for migratory birds.
For Apte, a radar for the flights that can monitor these flocks at a higher altitude could be one of the possible solutions. “Some adequate heads up to the captains need to be given. If there is a movement, the captains can be cautioned,” he suggested.
(Edited by Richa Mishra)