Mangrove park, eco-tourism centre to come up in Dahisar
The mangrove park in Gorai, Mumbai is nearing completion, and a tender worth ₹45.78 crore has been issued to set up a similar park in Dahisar. The Dahisar park will include a mangrove museum, a suspended glass bridge, a boardwalk, and a nature interpretation centre. The park will be located amid 200 acres of mangroves and is expected to be completed in two years. The project is part of the efforts to protect and conserve the remaining mangroves in the area.
Mumbai: With the mangrove park in Gorai reaching its completion stage, soon, nature lovers will be able to experience an immersive eco-tourism in the green lungs of Dahisar. The mangrove protection cell of the state forest department issued a tender worth ₹45.78 crore last week to set up a mangrove park with a boardwalk and a nature interpretation centre where visitors will be provided literature on birds, their behaviour and habitat.
This sprawling nature park is being planned amid 200 acres of mangroves, proposed by the forest department’s mangrove cell, and is one step closer to completion.
The park has to be completed in two years. The last suburb of Mumbai-Dahisar had a huge tract of mangroves and one such plot was encroached to form a Ganpat Patil Nagar. Now nothing can be done to reclaim the mangroves and hence the mangrove protection cell is planning to save the remaining mangroves.
SY Ramarao, the additional chief principal conservator of forest (mangrove protection cell) said, “We are fast completing the Gorai mangrove park and have issued the tender for the mangrove park at Dahisar. We will have a boardwalk at Dahisar and a nature interpretation centre.”
The Dahisar Park will have a mangrove museum and a suspended glass bridge which is one step closer to completion. The park is being built amid 200 acres of mangroves. Once finished, the park will house a 5,100 square metre nature interpretation centre nestled on the banks of the Gorai Creek and accessible via Link Road or by boat from the Gorai Jetty. The project’s success depends heavily on Mumbai’s Dahisar River Rejuvenation Project.
Ever since the Development Plan 2034 was announced, 80 hectares of ‘natural area’ lands were reserved for the same in Mumbai’s Development Plan (DP-2034). ‘Natural Area’ is a type of reservation in DCPR for environmentally sensitive lands where development is restricted.
The project’s centrepiece is a 5,100 square metre, state-of-the-art nature interpretation centre (NIC) nestled on the banks of the Gorai Creek, and will be accessible via Link Road or by boat from the Gorai Jetty.
“It is a strategically placed structure within the dense mangrove forest and won’t be visible unless one reaches the entrance of the NIC. The structure is elevated from the ground and is designed like a skywalk. Gives one the sense of a structure floating above the eye level,” states the forest department’s detailed project report (DPR) for the NIC in Dahisar. Meanwhile, the mangrove park in Gorai is heading towards completion and is spread over 8 hectares in the village of Gorai, this project was Initiated in 2021, with a projected completion in mid-2024.
It will also have a nature conservation and interpretation centre covering an expansive 1,517 sq. metres. Strategically located adjacent to a dumping ground, this centre assumes the pivotal role of an educational nucleus, imparting knowledge and fostering awareness regarding the intrinsic value of mangroves and their surrounding ecosystems.
A standout feature of the park is the wooden boardwalk/mangrove trail, an immersive pathway extending 700 metres with a width of 2.5 metres. This trail invites visitors into the heart of the mangrove ecosystem, facilitating a profound understanding and appreciation of the natural environment. This park was given a budgetary allocation of ₹23.63 crore.