From Sublime to “Rehriculous”
Wouldn’t it make you wonder why a place is called Rehri? The word in Urdu stands for a pushcart used for wheeling dealing. Instead, it 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.
Rehri displaying the “go-with-the-flow” attitude of its dwellers |
No pier, Oh dear. Don’t be a grump. Take a long jump. |
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 Groves where Man perhaps has not been able to reach yet. |
The author – making hay while the sun shines. |
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 area is inhabited by a wide variety of wildlife. 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 mud-bath and sun-bath at a time. Fishermen from Rehri and other nearby villages use all sorts of implements to catch fish and crustaceans.
The area is a paradise for bird watchers as well, particularly in the winter season when migratory birds from Siberia make it their home. 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, flamingoes and other visitors.
It takes about half an hour to reach this pristine 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 spot here for the world to come and see. But look what we have done here. We have created another Rehri – a push cart – only to do the “wheeling dealing” in mangroves!