The fight for the restoration of DPS lake undertaken by the residents is hopefully over and the dried DPS lake is reviving since the mending of the trench for pipe laying work by Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation has commenced from today on 16th April 2025. 

The trench which was made in 2024, once again is being dug by JCB and making 2 feet deeper to install 2ft wide 20-meter-long pipe for inflow of tidal water into the lake for its rejuvenation.

City engineer informed that it would take two more days to complete the process of deepening and inserting the pipe into the trench to ensure the flow of intertidal water into DPS lake in Nerul for its rejuvenation.

Meanwhile the mangrove cell Forest Department has already been in action in the site of DPS lake and removed all trash from the chocked-up inlet pipes.

Flamingos are slowly returning to their haven which they had avoided for last two seasons due to drying up of the lake water.

At the end of March 2025, a group of officials from Mangrove cell Forest Department Maharashtra and Engineers from Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation visited the said site of DPS lake along with Netra Shirke, the former corporator.

After surveying the area, the city engineers decided to start the work of making the trench deeper and lay the pipe inside that would be connected to the creek channel to ensure free flow of tidal water.

Rekha Sankhala from the residents’ team shared that, “as soon as the water has started entering the lake the flamingos are coming back to their original habitat, as if they were waiting for the rejuvenation. We cannot resist our excitement to watch the pink flow in the DPS Lake like we witnessed in the year 2021.” 

The Lake DPS located next to DPS school, Seawoods, Nerul has been frequented by tens of thousands of flamingos during the migratory bird season March-November every year. Unfortunately, the Flamingo habitat at DPS lake, was drying up slowly for past the two years.

The city-based Save Flamingo Save Mangrove and Navi Mumbai Environmental Preservation Society invited engineers from NMMC and the forest department’s Mangrove Cell for surveying the blocked channels last year.

The survey revealed that all three channels for DPS lake are blocked, hence the lake is shrinking day by day. 

Out of those three, one channel of water which is near the nonfunctional Nerul Jetty side has been buried totally due to the construction of the road towards the jetty.