The BMC had applied for wildlife clearance to translocate 18 coral colonies that are present at Haji Ali and Worli. (Representational)Citizen groups have taken to social media to register their protest after principal chief conservator of forests (PCCF), wildlife, Nagpur, had given the green signal to BMC for translocating corals that are affected due coastal road project.
Demanding cancellation of the translocation order, citizen groups took to Twitter and started a nationwide campaign using hashtags ‘CoralsBachao’ and ‘NoCoastalRoad’.
The BMC had applied for wildlife clearance to translocate 18 coral colonies that are present at Haji Ali and Worli. These colonies are threatened by the civic body’s ambitious 10.58-km coastal road plan.
“This move is a disaster and nothing less than an Ecocide as corals are a very crucial part of the marine ecosystem and according to experts corals are unlikely to survive the shift. The reclamation of sea itself is hazardous in many ways and over 36 marine species are threatened due to the coastal road project. They should rather look for sustainable alternatives,” said Tanmay Shinde, an environmentalist and one of the members of the citizen groups that planned the tweet storm.
Another activist Uma Rangnathan tweeted, “Experts say that the corals along Mumbai’s shore will not survive the shift. Why are the authorities ignoring their advice?”