India, 26th May, 2021-Godrej & Boyce has been contributing towards biodiversity conservation for decades; be it for mangroves located in the North eastern part of Mumbai or research on endemic plant species found in the Western Ghats by the Naoroji Godrej Centre for Plant Research (NGCPR)

In the last 14 months, NGCPR has discovered 2 new species and renamed one new hybrid species. One of the two new species has been discovered after 185 years and has been named as Alfred’s Commelina, after the collector Alfred Prentice Young. It was discovered by Dr. Mayur D. Nandikar, Scientist – Botany Plant Taxonomy from NGCPR. NGCPR has been actively conserving over 100 endemic plant species at their conservation centre in Shirwal, Maharashtra and have preserved more than 5,000 species in their herbarium. The organisation received a grant from the IAPT – an international organisation for the conservation of plant specimens, making NGCPR the first recipient in India to receive this prestigious grant.

On the occasion of ‘International Day for Biological Diversity 2021’, United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and Ministry of Environment, Forests & CC (MoEF&CC) are publishing ‘Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures’ (OECM) compendium. It is of the highest prestige to have the Godrej Mangroves conservation case study added to this esteemed publication. This recommendation for Godrej’s inclusion came from the UNDP based on the India Biodiversity Award that they won in 2018. Today’s OECM portal and Compendium will be published by Shri Prakash Javadekar, Honorable Minister, MoEF&CC. Since 1940’s, Godrej & Boyce has been conserving the mangroves in Vikhroli which play host to over 1600 different species of plants, animals, birds and insects and are Mumbai’s #UrbanLungs.

A study conducted by a team of scientists at Godrej & Boyce to understand the impact of the mangroves on the local environment estimated that the Godrej mangroves at Vikhroli has stored over ten lakh tonnes of carbon since its existence. The mangroves play an instrumental role in reducing the pollution levels in the city of Mumbai and purifying the air. With this as the backdrop, the Company has committed to protect the coastal areas and terrestrial areas in Vikhroli, Mumbai.

As part of its efforts to create long-term awareness about the significance of mangroves on local ecologies, Godrej & Boyce has undertaken several initiatives:

• Collaborated with WWF India and launched an awareness campaign across 8 Indian states.
• Launched a first-of-its-kind Mangroves mobile application in 11 languages which is a repository of knowledge on the biodiverse ecology supported by the mangroves.
• Published a unique story book ‘Many Secrets of Mangroves’ in English and Marathi with renowned Children’s author Katie Bagli, in order to sensitize children on the importance of the environment.
• Created a website www.mangroves.godrej.com on the vast cover of this coastal forest to educate children, environment enthusiasts and people at large on the importance of mangroves. The website is also the only resource of its kind to also be available in Marathi.