THANE: The shrinking green space, continuous construction and development work has resulted in noise and air pollution in Saket bio-diversity park area. This seems to have already begun hampering the ecological balance here, revealed a bird census was conducted across the city on Sunday. As part of the annual quarterly bird count conducted by city based environment NGOs Paryavaran Dakshata Mandal and HOPE, as many as 47 students, bird watchers and avifauna experts surveyed various parts of the city in seven groups on Sunday morning and jotted down all the number of birds they spotted.“Seven groups of volunteers visited seven separate locations, including Thane east creek area, Saltpans, Kolshet, Mumbra Hills, Thane west creek, Balkum, Saket, Manpada, SGNP, Khidkali, Padale and so on. Despite us skipping Yeoor area because of the mini marathon activity which is taking place there, the teams saw a total of 2,761 birds of 129 species. The Manpada and Balkum teams even recorded the sighting of the Brown Breasted Flycatcher for the first time in the city,” said Ravindra Sathaye, an environmentalist who coordinated the census.The overall bird count in the survey on Sunday rose by over 20% this year. While in 2017, the number was 2,244 birds, this year it was 2,761. However, the population of these winged creatures in Saket bio-diversity park dropped to just 10 from 130, which is 90%.Clara Correia, a member of the team, said, “During our bird census of the exact same areas last year, we came across 492 birds across 35 different species; of which 130 birds across 18 species were seen in the Saket bio-diversity park itself. During our trip there on Sunday, we were shocked to see only 10 birds in the park; most of which were mid-flight. The gulls, munias, prinias, sparrows and other birds were seen in abundance here last year. But they were nowhere to be seen this time.”Meanwhile, environmentalists believe that the main reason for the drop in numbers in this area is a result of the ongoing construction, deforestation and pollution.“The mangroves from Saket society near the biodiversity park to Balkum has been filled with debris over the past few months. Rampant destruction of green space in the name of development is bound to affect the environmental balance here,” said city-based activist Sanjeev Dutta.

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