Mumbai Metropolitan Region has lost land worth 15,000 football fields in past 30 years: Study

An assessment of satellite imagery of the Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane, and parts of Konkan coast in Maharashtra shows how fast coastal lands are being lost to the rising sea-level and also increasing urban flooding. More details here.

Gaon Connection
| Updated: June 5th, 2021

The study also predicts the possibility of excessive flooding in MMR if corrective measures are not implemented.

In the past three decades, Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) Maharashtra has lost about 107.6 square kilometers of its coastal area, including agricultural land, due to the rising sea-level. The area lost equals over 15,000 football fields.

Srushti Conservation Foundation (SCF), a Pune-based non-profit organisation, has conducted a satellite study, which shows the shrinking of the width of creeks and waterways along the region that includes Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai and Uran.

“Further the volume of water in the estuary between high tide and low tide (tidal prism) during non-monsoon months is altered due to land use changes, and is putting many coastal townships in the MMR at risk of increased inundation especially during monsoon months,” the study stated.

A comparison of mangrove vegetation in Mumbai Metropolitan Region between 1990-2019.

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Deepak Apte, Executive Director of Srushti Conservation Foundation stated that without policy and on site interventions, such creek areas will be converted into inhabitable lands such as mangrove forests, extremely shallow swamps or even dry lands in many parts.

“It will especially affect the flamingo habitat in  areas like Thane Creek, ” he said.

The study also predicts the possibility of excessive flooding in MMR if corrective measures are not implemented. 

Satellite images showing the change in coastal land during 1990-2019.

Increased risk of urban flooding

“The shrinking creek is not good for a city because the drainage capacity during monsoon will reduce significantly leading to excessive flooding for this region,” Apte was quoted as saying in the report.

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“Once it becomes shallow, the water carrying capacity of the creek will be reduced. As a result, during heavy rains and high tide water will enter the city spaces even with a subtle increase in sea level rise scenario,” he added.

Apte’s remarks were reflected in the words of Roxy Mathew Koll, Senior Scientist at Indian Institute of Tropical Management.

“Sea level rise is at a fast pace along the coast of Mumbai, at about 3 cm per decade now. This may be 5 cm in the coming decades, which means half a meter underwater in a century,” Koll warned.

Livelihoods at risk 

The study also mentioned that the incoming sea water also spoils the fertility of the farm lands and poses a serious threat to the livelihoods of the farmers across the MMR and the Konkan coast at large.

“Along coastal zones, most of the agricultural lands along the banks of estuaries or near the sea are slowly being converted to saline land also called kharlands,” it noted.

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Bhagwan Kesbhat, founder of Navi Mumbai-based NGO Waatavaran Foundation emphasised on the imminent need to employ policies to address the issue.

“Impacts of sea level rise are being witnessed more frequently along creek patches of MMR with the local livelihood at stake. A basic visit to any of the settlements located near the coast will reveal how agricultural land is being lost due to excess siltation,” he said.

“While protecting mangroves is a necessity in the face of more cyclones and sea level rise, losing existing farmlands, kharlands, and waterways will be a double whammy for local residents. There is a need to boost ecologically sensitive policy measures and ramp up disaster preparedness keeping these scientific submissions in mind,” he added.