Map My Mithi

Since October 2015, GreenLine along with the students of Don Bosco Institute of Technology (DBIT) have been mapping the Mithi river. Mithi river got popular among the citizens of Mumbai in 2005 because of heavy rainfall on 26 July and subsequent flooding which took part. Since then many efforts have been taken by the government to restore and rejuvenate Mithi.

The students managed to map the western arm of Mithi river from Kurla to the mouth of Mithi near Mahim Creek. The mobile application named ‘MyTracks’ was used by students to collect the GIS data on field. The pollution points along the 5-6 kms stretch on the either banks of the river were mapped. The entire project created an awareness amongst the students and also introduced them to different GIS techniques.

The data collected includes pollutions in the form of sewage, plastic, chemicals and toxins, debris and other types of waste. The analysis show that maximum component of the pollution load was of plastic and human and sewage. It also revealed that most of the pollution was concentrated close to human settlements. One group showed the pressure on wetlands as the city is expanding by comparison on the “Wetland Atlas of 2010” with the current Google Street map of 2016.

The finding of this study was presented at the seminar “Map My Mithi” at Don Bosco Institute of Technology, Kurla on 5th April, 2016. Prof. Arun Inamdar and Prof. Jitendra Shah from IIT- Bombay and Mr. Janak Daftari were the Guests of Honour at the Seminar. They also gave insights and suggestion to the students on the future course of the study.