Pink horizons: Protecting Mumbai’s flamingo sanctuary

An inside look at Amazon’s project to restore the birds’ habitat, and build economic opportunity and climate resilience for local communities.

Dawn broke in Mumbai, casting a hazy glow over Thane Creek. From our small boat, I watched one of the world's most contaminated waterways stretch out before us, its surface broken by drifting plastic and industrial debris. Then something stirred: soft, pink specks scattering across the horizon—a flamboyance of flamingos. Thousands of them flew, a spectacular contrast to the industrial sprawl of India’s busiest metropolis. Every year, over a million migratory birds, including flamingos, return to this unlikely refuge. But for how much longer? Industrial waste, plastic pollution, and rapid urbanization threaten the future of this vital sanctuary along the Central Asian Flyway.

To help restore this fragile flamingo habitat, Amazon has donated $1.2 million to Hasten Regeneration, a nonprofit equitably accelerating climate and biodiversity action. The collaboration with the organization was made possible through Amazon’s Right Now Climate Fund, a $100 million initiative supporting nature-based solutions in the communities where Amazon operates. At the fund’s heart is a simple belief: Local solutions—grounded in community, science, and regeneration—can yield global impact. I traveled to Mumbai with Hasten Regeneration’s cofounder, Sheeba Sen, to see how the project our teams created works.

“There is no single solution to solve complex crises like nature loss, climate change, and poverty,” Sen said. “With this project, we are looking at the flamingo habitat through a systems lens, introducing a bundle of regenerative economic engines and policy interventions together. First, treating the plastic waste; second, expanding the mangrove habitat while creating local employment for communities; and third, working with the local, state, and central Indian government bodies on policy focused on the conservation of migratory species and climate resilience opportunities for coastal communities.”

Removing plastic waste 

Cleaning Thane Creek is critical to this project’s success. So Amazon engaged Plastic Fischer, which collects plastic from rivers before it can reach the ocean. Sen and I spent a day with them installing a trash boom—a floating barrier designed to intercept plastic before it can pollute the flamingo feeding grounds. Within hours, the boom filled with plastic bottles, wrappers, and debris. By the end of the day, we pulled over 100 kilograms of waste from the water, a sight that left me both shocked and determined. Over the next three years, Plastic Fischer expects to remove 150 tons of plastic waste, gradually transforming these waters into a safer habitat for both the birds and the families living in the settlements along the creek’s edge.

Expanding the mangrove habitat while creating jobs for rural women

Following the flamingos’ migratory path led Sen and me to Gujarat, where the project employs rural women to plant an expected 375,000 mangroves near the birds’ nesting grounds. We joined them in the mud with bare feet and sleeves rolled up to help plant, getting our hands dirty. Plodding through the thick soil was harder than I expected, and it made me reflect on a Buddhist concept: “No mud, no lotus.” Lotus flowers will only root and bloom in the mud—just like the mangroves. The most beautiful transformations often begin in difficult places.

Mangroves are great allies in the fight against climate change. Research from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration suggests mangroves and coastal wetlands annually sequester carbon at a rate 10 times greater than mature tropical forests. These mangroves also shield local farms from the coast, protecting the agricultural land from rising sea levels and flooding.

In Gujarat, I met with another project collaborator: Rajesh Shah, founder and CEO of SAVE, a social enterprise committed to fostering sustainable development and improving quality of life for coastal communities in the Indian state.

“Climate change has severe impacts on the environment and poverty,” Shah said. “We thought, these women are the victims of climate change. Let them be the warriors of climate change.”

The rural women working on this project have faced poverty, the consequences of climate change, and, previously, bonded labor. Yet they are on the frontlines of environmental action. They are not just planting trees—they are building climate resilience, creating a future for themselves, for their communities, for birds, and for all of us.

“We were facing a lot of problems before; now we don’t need to borrow money from anyone—we have our own savings,” local farmer Laxmiben Vikrambhai Rathod said. “From that money we buy clothes and pay for the education fees for our children, so we are very happy now.”

She wasn’t just talking about income—she was talking about dignity.

Protecting mudflats and migratory species through conservation-focused policy 

A key part of my job is to listen, support, and bring visibility to this work. With interest from other organizations or governments, our funding could be catalytic and drive more change. 

“These migratory birds need healthy feeding areas, but the mudflat habitats are vanishing very rapidly,” marine ecologist Deepak Apte said. “We are working to protect these vital spaces through policy and through a capacity-building program at the state level and the government-of-India level. This Amazon-funded project is in sync with the National Action Plan for the Central Asian Flyway, so it complements the government of India’s commitment toward the conservation of migratory species."

Partnering with local communities, organizations, and governments is the path toward a more sustainable future. Hope, I realized during my visit, is not abstract. Hope is muddy. Hope is collective. Hope is in the doing.

Learn more about how Amazon supports nature.