Mumbai Harbour

Coordinates: 18°58′N 72°51′E / 18.96°N 72.85°E / 18.96; 72.85
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Mumbai Harbour
Neighbourhood
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Mumbai Harbour (also

Thana Creek. The harbour opens to the Arabian Sea to the south. The historical island of Elephanta
is one of the six islands that lie in the harbour.

Front Bay is the official name of the harbour[citation needed], so named because the city started as a tiny settlement facing the harbour. The waterbody behind the original settlement, forming an arc between the former Colaba island and Bombay island, up to the Malabar Hill promontory or peninsula, was similarly called Back Bay.

Front Bay is home to the

tourist destination
.

Islands

Bombay harbour 1626
The harbour east of the city
Two American Cargo ships docked at Bombay Harbour, 1948.

There are six islands in the Mumbai Harbour.[1]

Butcher Island, also known as Jawahar Dweep, is used as an oil terminal by the Mumbai Port. It has jetties for tankers and various other infrastructure for offloading crude oil and for loading refined petroleum products. The island is restricted to port employees, and not open to the public.

Cross Island is a small, uninhabited islet just off the coast of the Dockyard Road. Though the remains of old fortifications are visible, the island itself is restricted to the public.

Gharapuri Island, also known as

Buddhist
religious sculptures. The carvings date back to between 5th and 8th centuries.

Middle Ground Coastal Battery is a small islet in the Thane
creek. It features an antique coastal gun battery of the Indian Navy. The guns salute Indian naval vessels returning from deployments when they enter the harbour.

Oyster Rock is a small group of rock outcroppings in the harbour. The area has restricted access since it is used for naval exercises.

Ulhas river. Mumbai was originally a distinct island from Thane, but reclamation of land has long since merged the islands. Powai Lake, Tulsi Lake and Vihar Lake
are the largest lakes on the island.

Mumbai Port

Mumbai Port (MbPT) lies midway (18°56.3′N 72°45.9′E / 18.9383°N 72.7650°E / 18.9383; 72.7650) on the western shore of Mumbai Harbour.[2] The port was the pre-eminent commercial port of India in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It is known as the gateway to India, and has been a primary factor in the emergence of Mumbai as the commercial capital of India.

Ecology

flamingoes
.

Pollution

Due to immense population pressures from the Mumbai metropolitan region and the extremely busy maritime trade, the Harbour is considered to be heavily polluted.

This includes reports of heavy metals flux found in the creeks adjacent to the harbour with the harbour acting as a sink for most of the pollutants.[3]

In Art and Literature

The abundance of fish in this area is recorded in a painting by Clarkson Frederick Stanfield of Bombay Harbour—Fishing Boats in the Monsoon., engraved by Edward Goodall and with a poetical illustration by Letitia Elizabeth Landon.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Islands of Mumbai". Indian Islands Tour. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
  2. ^ "Port Profile". Mumbai Port Trust. Archived from the original on 25 August 2011. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
  3. ^ "IAPSO". Iugg.org. Retrieved 22 July 2011.

External links