As you make your way to Airoli in Navi Mumbai, it quickly becomes clear—you’re in flamingo country. The signs are everywhere—murals, themed parks, and roadside statues, all celebrating the city’s seasonal pink guests.
The flamingo theme continues, unsurprisingly, at the Coastal & Marine Biodiversity Centre in Airoli. This is the first stop on our way to Thane Creek, a crucial wetland that draws thousands of flamingoes each year. I’m here to understand what makes this place so important—for the birds that rely on it and the people working to protect it. I’m also here to see firsthand how Amazon’s $1.2 million investment, as part of its global Right Now Climate Fund, is taking shape—restoring mangroves, tackling plastic waste, and supporting local communities—all in an effort to protect a vital habitat for Mumbai’s flamingoes.
Mangroves, mudflats and a $1.2 million mission
From a boat jetty, on a sunny Thursday morning, we—a motley crew of filmmakers, photographers, conservationists, and ornithologists—set off to explore Thane Creek and meet its many residents. The creek, along with Mumbai Harbour, is a key stop on the Central Asian Flyway, with nearly 1 million migratory birds passing through each season—including some 180,000 flamingoes.
And this is where Amazon is wading in. Working with Hasten Regeneration, a social enterprise and developer of ecosystem restoration projects, Amazon’s investment will fund a clean-up along the settlements on the Thane Creek in Mumbai and plant mangroves in the neighbouring state of Gujarat.
“We are proposing $1.2 million in funding over a 3-year period from Amazon’s Right Now Climate Fund (RNCF),” says Abhinav Singh, Vice President of Operations, Amazon India. “The Mumbai Mangrove Restoration Project has three key objectives—cleaning up bird habitats, restoring mangroves, and supporting local communities. We’re working to clear plastic and waste from areas that support 180 bird species, including Mumbai’s iconic flamingoes. Then, we’re replanting 150 hectares of mangroves—about 375,000 trees—along the coastline. And finally, we’re making sure the local fishing communities benefit too, by creating jobs and empowering women through this effort.”
The creek’s celebrities
Thane Creek’s most famous inhabitants—and the face of this conservation project—aren’t exactly hard to spot.
Barely five minutes of gentle bobbing in the boat, and there it is—a flamboyance of flamingoes. Spread across the water, two distinct species wade side by side—the taller, paler Greater Flamingoes (Phoenicopterus roseus) and the smaller, more vibrantly pink Lesser Flamingoes (Phoeniconaias minor). Their curved necks dip gracefully as they filter-feed with their uniquely shaped bills.
Thane’s daily air show
Steering us ever closer to the flamingoes, at the helm of our boat is Shahid Salim Bamne, a boat driver and guide with the forest department. For 13 years, he has navigated these waters, introducing visitors to the sights and sounds of Thane Creek. “Flamingoes are getting used to humans in boats,” he observes. “These days they let us come a lot closer before flying away.” Almost on cue, the flock erupts into the air—a chaotic flurry of pink wings and legs—before gracefully falling into a V-formation, circling back to settle once more in the creek’s waters.
The conservation ripple effect
Flamingoes aren’t born pink—their colour comes from the beta-carotene in the algae and crustaceans they consume. The more they eat, the pinker they get. And here, in the wetlands of Thane Creek, there’s plenty to go around according to Mrugank Prabhu, an ornithologist with the Srushti Conservation Foundation (SCF). “These mudflats support a huge population of birds that winter here every year. Many of these species are globally endangered or vulnerable species,” he says, over the hum of the boat’s motor. “When you start working towards conserving flamingoes, you need to protect the same mudflats and habitat that many other species need. So eventually you end up conserving the whole ecosystem when you try to protect one single species.”
More than just flamingoes
The flamingo’s ecosystem is a careful balance between mudflats, mangroves, and tidal currents, which together create the ideal refuge for many migratory and resident birds. Apart from flamingoes, Thane Creek is home to a stunning variety of species—waders combing the shallows, raptors surveying the waters—a true birdwatcher’s paradise.
Back on terra firma, I meet Akash Dinanath Patil, a fisherman from the Koli community, whose family has fished in Thane Creek for generations. For fishermen like him, the flamingoes have become an unexpected lifeline. Their arrival every year brings more than just colour to the creek—it brings opportunity. "People come to see the flamingoes, and we take them out on our boats," he smiles. "It's nice to have the flamingoes around. We don't need to sing—they keep singing, and we just listen," he laughs.
A habitat in decline
Yet, beyond the flamingoes, the creek tells a different story—one of decline. Patil’s father and grandfather knew a very different creek, one teeming with marine life. "When my grandfather was here, we used to lay traps for sharks right here. I've caught pomfret myself," he says, gesturing toward the plastic pontoon at the edge of the boat jetty. "But now, there's nothing left."
Over lunch at the Coastal & Marine Biodiversity Centre, I speak with Dr Girish Jathar, Deputy Director of Research at SCF, about the mounting challenges facing this fragile ecosystem.
“The biggest threat to the flamingo's habitat is the rampant development happening along the coast,” he tells me. “This is a major threat to birds worldwide, and Mumbai is no exception.”
Plastic pollution is another growing concern. “Plastic from smaller creeks flows into Thane Creek, where it accumulates and settles on the mudflats during low tide. This not only reduces habitat for birds that depend on these feeding grounds but also impacts the benthic fauna—tiny organisms that are a crucial food source. As plastic breaks down into microplastics, it enters the environment and affects all species,” he explains.
Catch of the day
My next stop is the Usha Nagar Nala, a drain in the Bhandup area, where efforts are underway to stop plastic from flowing into Thane Creek. Here, a bright yellow trash boom stretches across the drain—a floating barrier designed to trap plastic waste before it drifts further into Thane Creek. It’s a simple but effective intervention, preventing solid waste from settling on the mudflats and in the mangroves.
“The levels of pollution here are off the roof—a heavy combination of solid waste, untreated sewage, and industrial effluents,” remarks Sheeba Sen, Co-founder of Hasten Regeneration alongside the trash boom. “This is not a safe habitat. And that's one of the big goals of this project. Through the catalytic philanthropy grant from the Right Now Climate Fund, we’re asking: how do we go about making this a safer habitat for the birds?”
Amazon’s conservation push: Waste cleanup, habitat expansion, and advocacy
“The project has three components,” she explains. “One is addressing plastic waste draining into the Thane Creek sanctuary, two is expanding the habitat by 150 hectares along the (flamingo’s) stopover sites on the way to Kutch, and the third component is policy where we take the learnings of this project and speak to industries, speak to government stakeholders, community stakeholders to shed light on mudflats as an important habitat.”
Step 1 of the project—the trash boom has been in place for only days, but it’s already making a difference. Each day, up to 150 kg of solid waste is pulled from the water and laid out to dry. Alongside this, a manual clean-up effort is underway , where plastic waste will be removed from hard-to-reach areas. The goal is ambitious—150 tons of plastic waste cleared from the mangrove forests and flamingo habitat.
All the dried-up solid waste collected from the trash boom is transported to a Material Recovery Facility, where it is segregated, hydraulically compressed into bales, and sent to recycling plants. This is the last stop—for me, and for the plastic that might have otherwise choked the creek.
But for the Mumbai Mangrove Restoration Project, this is just the start.
“The project’s impact is expected to be both immediate through plastics removal and habitat restoration, and long-lasting through governance or policy guidelines and the provision of strategic research that can drive catalytic conservation support to the region,” says Abhinav Singh.
That evening, as I cross the Airoli Bridge and leave flamingo country behind, in the hazy distance I can see flecks of pink—the birds are still there, still wading, still feeding, still stealing the show. The work here is far from over, but for now, at least, the creek is still theirs.