BMC committee plans to declare areas around water bodies, eco-sensitive zones

MUMBAI: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC’s) Biodiversity Management Committee, in an attempt to preserve water bodies within the metropolis, plans to declare areas around them eco-sensitive zones (ESZs). In its first assembly on Monday, January 18, the committee conducted a dialogue on the conservation of water bodies, controlling air pollution in coastal areas and growing biodiversity across the metropolis’s gardens and parks.

The 23-member committee, headed by Ramakant Biradar, Deputy Municipal Commissioner, has many specialists from the fields of marine life, wildlife and setting, besides civic officers and elected legislators.

As per the civic officers, the committee will collect information about the precise number of water bodies in the city and a conservation method will be prepared. Numerous lakes in the city have been facing pollution and threat to aquatic life since years as sewage water and waste are directly emptied into them. The committee believes that the conservation of all aquatic bodies should be looked at comprehensively. It is also planning to prepare a people’s biodiversity register, boost the conservation and preservation of biological diversity, sustainable use of its components and fair and equitable sharing of benefits, and regulate access to biological resources. The information will be shared with the state and National Biodiversity Committees.