Livelihood of Mumbai fishers at risk as mangroves make way for road

At archetypal light, Pujan Bhende, 30, sets retired from Versova for the Arabian Sea successful his bluish sportfishing vessel and spends astatine slightest 9 hours astatine the borderline of vast, tangled clusters of green-brown mangroves, casting his net, checking the trapped food and crabs arsenic the h2o recedes, and repeating the process.

Fishing adjacent mangroves is the lone root of livelihood for astir 400 fisherfolk residing astatine Versova, Charkop, Dahisar, Malvani, and Gorai successful Mumbai.

However, ongoing enactment to chopped 45,675 mangroves crossed 103.6 hectares of wood onshore for the 23-km-long Versova-Bhayandar Coastal Road task has near them worried. “When these mangroves are gone, I volition astir apt extremity up moving arsenic a labourer,” says Mr. Bhende.