Our students of Don Bosco High school, Borivali, Naman Saike, Zidaan Castellino, Aryan Nazareth, and Kuhu Kamat, accompanied by teacher Ms. Diana Machado were privileged to visit Godrej Mangroves organized by Greenline team on 20th August 2022, Saturday. Students of all schools gathered and were divided into 3 groups.  The region’s physiography was a large creek, surrounded by undulating hills. It was covered in a thick mangrove forest.  The Mangrove is said to be the World’s largest privately owned mangrove forest and is so vast that 128 football stadiums could fit in it. Initially, they were taken to a watch tower and the view from above was overwhelming and beautiful! They got to see numerous species of flora and fauna. The fauna included mangrove crabs, slugs, frogs, butterflies and earthworms. In this forest, indigenous species of plants were seen, like Miswak, balsam, Avinecia, and Mangrove roots. Students learnt about the adaptations of mangroves and how it helps Mumbai, being a coastline city, in pollution. It plays an important role in bio-geo-chemical cycles. Mumbai is one of the few places in India, where mangroves grow. The water from our sewage is collected here and the mangroves use it thus there is a reduction in water pollution and sewage water mixing with clean water. After the observation, they were taken to a centre where they had an indoor session about the importance of mangroves and how they should preserve it. After the walk, they were taken back to Soonabai Marine Ecology Center, where they discussed what they had learnt from the trip, followed by breakfast.

Our school students collected plant specimens for further research and scientific experiments to be conducted in the school. One should know the importance of Mangroves in our daily lives and learn to preserve them.

Thank you