Make it make sense. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) recently proposed cutting mangroves in the CRZ-1 protected area across 8.2 acres in Bhandup. It says this has to be done to make way for a cloverleaf interchange for the Rs 14,000-crore Goregaon-Mulund Link Road. The proposal comes on the heels of the BMC’s insistence on proceeding with the cutting of at least 45,675 mangroves on the western side of the city for the Versova-Bhayander stretch of the coastal road.

Not far from the site of the proposed cutting in Bhandup, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) will cut down 3,754 mangroves across nearly 30 acres in the buffer zone of the Thane Creek Flamingo Sanctuary for the Thane Coastal Road-2 project. This is a Ramsar site, which means it is a protected wetland of international importance. The MMRDA has even listed how the construction will impact the ecologically sensitive area. In all three cases, flooding is likely to increase.

Yet come February, and these very agencies are likely to help stage the second edition of the Mumbai Climate Week, for which invitations to register have already begun landing in inboxes. The first edition, held this February, had the Government of Maharashtra, the BMC and the MMRDA among its lead partners in a long and impressive list of 129 partners and sponsors. On stage at the glittering private convention centre in Bandra Kurla Complex, the institutions tasked with protecting the city in every way affirmed their commitment to the task and detailed their role in making Mumbai climate-resilient, including keeping it flood-free.

How they see Mumbai becoming climate-resilient........

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