Sewri Mangrove Park — Attraction in Mumbai

Fantastic flamingo viewing during the season, but solo women make sure to carry pepper spray

Absolutely amazing place to see hundreds of flamingos during the season (date of my visit - 10 March 2025). 360deg, wetlands, marshes, flamingos!!! Variety of other water birds as well.

Some notes of caution: Access is via a road that appears to be flanking some petroleum works area - the road is extremely desolate. No people around. Only tens and hundreds of giant petroleum tankers parked around both sides of the road all the way in (~1km)

The actual place is so isolated you can't make out it's the place to go. During the time I visited (around 4:15pm - 6 pm) a few people (all men and boys) started trickling in in groups. Appeared to be locals. Strikingly, no women or children at all - I had (mistakenly) assumed there would be at least some families, or even couples - no one. Absolutely no one. Maybe because it was a Monday?

As a solo woman, I was a little creeped out by the emptiness of the place. If I had known how desolate it was, I would have carried pepper spray. Never expected this kind of emptiness inside Mumbai city.

Booking cab (to leave) is difficult: Autos don't ply in the area. Your only option is to book an Ola/ Uber/ Rapido cab, but they take a lot of time to reach the place all the way inside. If you want to walk till the main road, you have to walk through an isolated 1km stretch - again, a bit scary. After that, there is a large train station, where meter cabs are also available.

I want to stress that no one troubled or stressed me in any way whatsoever (except for normal things - bit of staring at the obvious tourist). Local kids minding their own business and 'timepass' as they said, a few men who came by to loiter. Just that given the normal state of affairs, desolate places seem a bit scary. I'd still come, but carrying some assurance, and planning to be well gone by sunset.

This would be a great spot for a picnic with a few friends (responsibly, of course, carry all your trash away!)

Enjoy my attempts at amateur photography with a scratched smartphone and...

Sewri (pronounced as Shivdi / शिवडी) was a small hamlet on the eastern shore of the Parel island, one of the original seven islands of Bombay. Sewri has a fort that dates back to 1770. The Agri-Horticultural Society had established gardens at Sewri, which were acquired in 1865 by Arthur Crawford, then the Municipal Commissioner of Bombay, for building a European cemetery. Large parts of Sewri belong to the Bombay Port Trust and were incorporated into the harbour facilities. In 1996, the mangrove swamps of Sewri were declared a protected ecology. Lesser flamingos from other parts of India come to these mangroves to breed. The coastal area of locality includes the Sewri mudflats, a wetland. The flamingos arrive at the mudflats from the months of October to March every year. These mudflats are near the Sewri jetty, which is a 20-minute walk from the railway station.

The Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Road (RAK marg) which consist of four adjacent roads begins at Sewri and ends at Maheshwari Udyan (Matunga) near King's Circle station. Fatima High School can be found at the beginning of the RAK road. The Sewri Christian Cemetery, the largest of its kind within city limits, is located here.

Sewri East houses a number of industrial units especially those of Petrochemical industries. Sewri West is largely residential, consisting of housing societies like Sewri koliwada, BDD Chawls, Mulraj Bhuvan. The Mulraj Bhuvan Group (MBG) is also a very famous club in this area known for its sporting and social activities. built by British in year 1925, Dnyaneshwar Nagar, Shivaji Nagar, Gulmohar Society, Labour Camp and Bhatwadi. The market area is called "Sewri Naka".

Opening up of mill lands and the Mumbai Port Trust lands for development has resulted in a lot of construction activity in this area. The (Sewri-Nhava Sheva transharbour link), which is being planned by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), threatens the habitat of the...

Its surprising that bird watching is possible at the heart of crowded Mumbai. You do not have to go far, just take your family to this fantastic spot (period October-March) to get a very close view of the majestic flamingoes flocking to Seri Mudflats. If you have a camera with decent zoom or even with a mobile phone you can snap them during their feeding session. Best time to visit is in the evening. Posting here some of the pictures which I had clicked using a DSLR with zoom supported by a Tripod. You can easily spend the evening with family enjoying soft evening sunlight on the white an pink birds in all their glory. In the distance one case spot the giant Chimney of the Tata Power surrounded by Mahul refineries. This makes for an amusing contrast nature intermixed with industrial town of Mahul as backdrop !. See my picture to illustrate this point. On the other side of the jetty one can notice series of fishing boats huddling together. Men of various ages, probably fishermen residing in these boats stare at you like aliens from a spaceship ! You can also drive to the nearby Sewri fort to walk through...