A Species In the Pink

Despite pressure from development, flamingos are thriving on the shores of one of India's most populous cities, with a little help from its locals

- Vaishnavi Chandrashekhar

A yellow cloth flutters in the line of mangroves along the shore. Behind the trees, tall buildings shimmer in a haze of pollution; in front of them, thousands of flamingos are gathering, flying in from nearby roosting sites. As the sun ascends, the tidal water ebbs, exposing the mudflats that are the flamingos' feeding grounds.

The army of pink advances.

In a boat, Mrugank Prabhu unpacks his camera, sets up his telescope, and begins his count.

Prabhu is a scientist with the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), which is leading an ambitious 10-yearlong study to monitor a unique phenomenon. Every winter, thousands of greater and lesser flamingos fly into Mumbai, forming a sea of pink against a backdrop of skyscrapers, bridges and oil refineries along the 26-kilometerlong Thane Creek. The seasonal gathering is a source of wonder in Mumbai, and also a bit of a mystery.

The flamingos only began visiting Mumbai in significant numbers in the 1990s. As the city grew in the 1970s and '80s, so did the volume of untreated sewage flowing into Thane Creek, nurturing the algae that are the flamingos' main food, and turning the area into a feeding ground for the birds. Their numbers have increased in the past two decades, from at least 10,000 in 2007 to an estimated 1,30,000 this year.

The phenomenon illustrates the complexity of urban coastal ecosystems in India, say experts. Sometimes, "human impact results in conditions that seem terrible for nature at a glance, but are actually a gold mine for some species," says Sunjoy Monga, a veteran local naturalist, who has also led a study on Mumbai wildlife. Now, the flamingos are reshaping the ecological mindset of the city too, showing what wildlife can do for conservation even in the most pressured environments.