14 turtles rescued from Railadevi Lake

Thane: After turtle toll touched five at Railadevi Lake in Thane’s Wagle estate on Thursday, 14 turtles were rescued by the forest department and NGOs on Friday. The rescued turtles include 12 red-eared slider and two softshell turtles.

On Friday, the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) and the members of Wildlife Welfare Association, an NGO, took up the work of shifting fish from the lake, which is undergoing a major facelift, to an artificial pond.

“The Indian softshell turtles which were older were found dead. We are investigating the matter and will ascertain the cause of death in the coming days,” Dinesh Desle, Thane range forest officer, said.

“Now the big concern here is that due to such lake beautification works, which are carried out without any expert opinion and not following measures, the aquatic life is adversely affected. There is a need to stop all such works and first think about aqua life before any beautification work at lakes,” Aditya Patil, president, Wildlife welfare Association, said.

An NGO, Muse Foundation, had on Thursday alleged that the Railadevi beautification project was being carried out without any environmental or forest clearances. “Riparian zone of the lake is being destroyed. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) and TMC have dumped construction debris to reclaim portions of the lake. Thereafter, the slope of the lake has been covered by gabion structures which most probably will be concretised. These slopes are the nesting habitat of the turtles and other aquatic life of the lake. Both agencies through their contractor have destroyed these habitats,” Nishant Bangera, founder of the foundation, had told HT on Thursday.

Blame game

Meanwhile, a blame game has started between two agencies—TMC and MMRDA. The TMC contractor had taken up desilting work at the lake for a beautification project initiated by the MMRDA.

The MMRDA on Friday claimed that the TMC is responsible for the desiltation, while the authority was only looking after the beautification of the lake.

“Cutting of trees, desilting the lake is part of the tasks related to the TMC and the MMRDA has nothing to do with it. We will only develop the lake area, while the TMC is responsible for the aquatic life in the lake,” an MMRDA official said.

Muse foundation that has highlighted the violations of norms by the TMC claimed that there was a need to have an ecological survey for the lake.

“On Friday, more softshell turtles were found alive at Railadevi Lake. This shows, the TMC must immediately carry out an ecological survey to understand the entire lake properly and constitute a committee to figure out the way forward and prevent further damage to the lake. The experts should be independent and not from the TMC or MMRDA,” Nishant Bangera said.

TMC chief officer for environment, Manisha Pradhan, did not respond to calls when contacted.