The Mangroves Foundation’s programme for creating awareness to stop people from feeding seagulls during boat rides and in public places has started showing effect. Tourist yacht operators have now started promoting the campaign, asking tourists to not feed the seabirds. Pawan Sharma, founder-president of RAWW, recently brought to the notice of the Mangrove Cell of Maharashtra Forest Department (MFD) an incident where a yacht operator was advertising about spotting dolphins and feeding seagulls.

The department took up the matter with the operator, Blue Bay Marine, which immediately pulled down the ad. A forest department official said the yacht operator, in an ad for selling tickets, said that “one can sail off Gateway of India and spot dolphins and feed seagulls on February 27.” Meherzad Kajanwalla of Blue Bay Marine said, “I have been running my company for the past 14 years and until now, I wasn’t aware of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 that prevents feeding of wildlife. ‘Feed Seagulls’ is a term used worldwide to attract tourists, but now that I know the rule, I would never use it on any of our promotions. We will also educate tourists and create awareness.”