Blinding LED lamps at DPS Flamingo Lake in Navi Mumbai to be replaced

Nani Mumbai: Responding to environmentalists’ complaints against light pollution impacting the pink birds at the DPS Flamingo Lake in Navi Mumbai, the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) has now decided to replace the blinding LED lamps with yellow bulbs on the elevated road en route to Nerul Jetty road.

CIDCO has floated an e-tender in regards to this with a deadline of September 11 to submit bids.

The green groups have been complaining since January-February this year against the use of the bright LED lights after seven flamingos crashed into the giant sign board for the passenger water transport terminal and died.

Subsequently, ten more pink birds died after apparently getting disoriented due to the lights and absence of food as the lake dried up following the blockage of intertidal water flow, NatConnect Foundation said.

Though belated, it is a welcome step by CIDCO, said NatConnect Foundation director B N Kumar.

Hopefully, the lake will be ready to welcome the birds with not-so-bright lights during the next flamingo season beginning next month, Kumar said.

Migratory birds, flamingos in particular, flying low while landing and taking off at the DPS Flamingo Lake have been getting disoriented due to the light pollution, Kumar pointed out.

CIDCO responded quickly and the then joint MD Dr Kailas Shinde had the sign board removed.

Dr Shinde is now the Commissioner at Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) and NatConnect appealed to him to have the lamps changed around the lake, particularly on the service road parallel to Palm Beach Road.

The Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) had suggested NMMC and CIDCO to replace the bright lights and also change the lamps’ angle to 45 degree downwards to protect the birds from light pollution.

CIDCO, while replacing the LED lamps with yellow bulbs, must change the lampshades’ angle to 45 degree downwards, NatConnect said.

Sandeep Sareen of Navi Mumbai Environment Preservation Society (NMEPS) expressed hope that wiser counsel would prevail in CIDCO, and that the city planner will behave according to a pro-environment manner.

CIDCO needs to respect mangroves and wetlands as part of the city’s biodiversity, activist Rekha Sankhala said.

Light pollution is one of the major banes for birds and they tend to get disoriented due to it. “This is exactly why we had launched a campaign against bright lights at Vadale Lake in Panvel,” said activist and birder Jyoti Nadkarni.