Coastal Zones

Biography

Biography: Dr Prabhakar R Pawar

Abstract

Biodiversity, which is the diversity of earth’s ecosystems, species and their genes, is highly valued its natural biological wealth, sustains human life. But it is being systematically degraded. Several hundred species have become extinct and many are on the way to a certain death. ‘When nation loses its biodiversity, it stands to lose not only its wealth, but also its future.’ Mumbai, a major metropolis and one of the world’s most populous cities called as the Urbs Prima of India. Mumbai city with 16 million inhabitants is the most populous city in India with 29,650 people inhabiting per square kilometer. Mumbai generates 0.85 millions m3/d of liquid effluent and 14,600 t/d of solid waste, which without any treatment, are discharged in the coastal region in and around Mumbai. The coastal environment of Navi Mumbai has been under considerable stress since the onset of Thane-Belapur Industrial Belt (TBIB, around 3200 industries), Taloje Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation Industrial Area (more than 822 industries), Chemical factories of Vashi (Navi Mumbai, around 1000 industries) and Jawaharlal Nehru Port (An busiest international port occupying 28th rank among worlds 100 ports and handled 44 Lac containers in current year). Oil, sewage and industrial pollution were believed to be the main environmental problems in the coastal zone of Navi Mumbai. Urbanization, industrialization, reclamation, encroachment, overexploitation and unsustainable demand have resulted in the considerable degradation of mangroves, diversity loss of macrobenthos and several incidences of dead fish surfacing on the shores of Navi Mumbai. Uran with the population of 23,251 is located along the eastern shore of Mumbai harbour opposite to Coloba. A creek called ‘Uran creek/Sheva creek’ (Lat. 180 50’ 20” N and Long. 720 57’ 5” E) encircles Uran city and is continuous with the Panvel creek and Thane creek joining Arabian Sea. The coastal environment of Uran has been under considerable stress since the onset of industries like Oil and Natural Gas Commission LPG Distillation Plant, Grindwell Norton Ltd., MSEB Gas Turbine Power Station, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd., Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNP), Nhava-Seva International Container Terminal (NSICT), Container Freight Stations (CFS) etc. Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNP) was established in 1989 near the Uran creek. JNPT is one of the busiest ports among 11 Major Indian Ports and handles about 60% of the total National Marine Transport of cargos. In current year, JNPT handled 44 Lac containers and occupies 28th rank among worlds 100 ports. The port has two dedicated terminals- Bulk and Container. Bulk Terminal with 3 berths and Container Terminal with 2 berths handles the import/export of liquid bulk, ore, vehicles, fertilizers, fertilizer raw materials, food grains etc. JNPT supports a variety of maritime activities; as a result, the area of Uran creek became the ground for hectic activities of Container Freight Stations (CFS). These activities affect the intertidal benthic ecology of fauna and flora. Hence this area has been identified for the ecological assessment. As benthos acts as environmental monitoring agents, for present investigation, 3 study sites separated approximately by 10 km were selected along the coastal line of Uran i. e. Sheva Creek: (Lat.180 50' 20" N and Long. 720 57' 5" E), Peerwadi coast: (Lat.180 50' 10" N and Long. 720 57' 1" E) & Dharamtar Creek: (Lat.180 50' 5" N and Long. 720 57' 10" E) for study of community structure of macrobenthos. Assessment of species diversity and community structure (population density, biomass & diversity indices) of selected macrobenthos is done from Jun 2013 to May 2015. A total of 170 species of macrobenthos representing 44 orders, 83 families and 119 genera were recorded from the Uran coast. Of the recorded species, 11.176% belonged to sea weeds, 9.412% to sponges, 1.176% each to soft corals & anomuran crabs, 2.353% each to flat worms & cephalopods, 2.941% to polychaetes, 18.235% to brachyuran crabs, 35.294% to gastropods, 15.294% to pelecypods & 0.588% to tunicates. This study reveals that maritime activities of Jawaharlal Nehru Port, hectic activities of Container Freight Stations, disposal of domestic wastes and untreated or partially treated industrial effluents in coastal region of Uran, Navi Mumbai have depleted coastal resources, public health risk and loss of coastal and marine biodiversity. Slaughtering of mangroves from Navi Mumbai region due to over exploration, unsustainable demand and reclamation have resulted in destruction of marine life.