Civic amenities are non-existent here. Makeshift arrangements abound. Only your love for mangroves and marina would bring you here twice....
nature
Wouldn’t it make you wonder why a place is called Rehri? The word in Urdu stands for a pushcart used for wheeling dealing but the place called Rehri is a small fishermen’s village - east of Landhi in Karachi. Facing the beautiful mangrove islands around the Port Qasim channel, it is a slum of the highest order. Civic amenities are non-existent here. Makeshift arrangements abound. Only your love for mangroves and marina would bring you here twice.
But once you have sailed from and left Rehri and its abominable squalor behind you, nature starts unfolding itself, revealing its secrets through the winding coastal straits and leaving you a bit awestruck. As you move between the numerous close-knit mangrove islands, it feels that you are in an amazing maze, lost in a lost world yet unwilling to rush home.
The islands are thickly wooded with nothing but mangroves. The density does not let you peep an inch into these forests. At some places, you may see a bunch of denuded trees allowing you to see through them and observe what the surface of these islands is like. It appears spiky, perhaps due to the chopping of trees. The shorelines are muddy and slimy. The place can have an unpleasant odour, especially when the tide is out and water has receded.
Almost the entire coastal belt of Sindh is comprised of the archipelago of these mangrove covered islands. The last of these islands towards the western side is the Bundle Island which is at the mouth of the Korangi Creek commonly known as ‘2 Darya’, just across the sea channel and facing Phase VIII of Defence Housing Authority. Going deeper into the Indus River delta you come across other big islands like Buddo Island and Khiprianwala Island bang opposite Ibrahim Hydri, before reaching Port Qasim. These channels provide plausible sea routes to operate ferry service for general public from Port Qasim to Sea View or Keamari. This would provide a less time consuming and enjoyable transport and would also reduce maddening traffic congestion on Korangi Road and Korangi Creek Road.
The area is inhabited by a wide variety of wildlife and is a paradise for bird watchers particularly in the winter season when migratory birds from Siberia make it their home. Meandering in the winding water channels, you can expect to encounter a feathered friend on your next bend. Amongst the resident birds you can find snipes, godwits, herons, egrets, lapwings, fish eagles, seagulls, etc. You can even find curlews almost round the year and may also catch a glimpse of coots. In winters, the place is inhabited by mallards, teals, pochards, etc. If you are lucky, you can find a flock of flamingos too. To take a good picture of flamingos, you would require a zoom lens as they are shy birds and do not let you close in on them.
The mangroves are prolific in shrimp production. Many other sea creatures including a host of fishes, crabs and lobsters are commonly found. Where the shoreline is extended, one can find juvenile mudfish (locally known as ‘Gulla’) strewn all over the place, taking a mud-bath and sunbath at a time. Fishermen from Rehri and other nearby villages use all sorts of implements to catch fish and crustaceans. Among the molluscs, a rare species found in this archipelago is Razor Clam. They are long and slim and have been named so because of their long shell which looks like an antiquated razor once used by barbers. The Razor Clams are not consumed domestically but are exported in reasonably large volumes. The population of these molluscs and crustaceans is diminishing fast due to unchecked felling of mangroves which provide a prolific breeding ground for these species.
The population of Rehri and the vicinities are dependent on mangroves and keep felling the trees day in, day out for want of firewood. Another threat to these mangrove forests is that the camel herd owners of Ibrahim Hyderi and Rehri allow camels to feed on mangroves. There is a need to plan mangrove plantation drives on a large scale and regular basis.
It takes less than half an hour to reach the pristine mangrove forest environment. Had it been so close to any other city in the world, people (in the government or private sector) would have developed a tourist resort here for the world to come and see. Manhattan Island, Long Island, Staten Island and many such islands constitute the megalopolis of New York and have made it a city that the whole world aspires to see. But look what we have done here. We are dumping all sorts of waste material including sewage and factory effluents which contain toxic chemicals into the sea. And we have created another Rehri - a push cart - only to do the ‘wheeling dealing’ in mangroves.
