ENVIRONMENT SPECIAL

New Delhi, 25 July 2008

Mangrove Conservation

NEED FOR STRINGENT LAWS

By Radhakrishna Rao

The ecologically significant and biologically diverse mangrove forests, wedged between the land and sea, act as an effective buffer against destructive cyclones and violent tidal storms that lash the coastal stretch with unchecked fury. Indeed, the deadly Tsunami of December 2004, which left behind a trail of death and destruction in coastal settlements in India and parts of South-East Asia did not cause any damage in Tamil Nadu’s Point Calimere, Muthupettai and Pitchavaram thanks to the dense and luxuriant mangrove cover.

It is precisely for this reason that eminent agricultural scientist M.S. Swaminathan, has all along been vigorously advocating the need to conserve mangrove forests that thrive well in the brackish wetlands between the land and the sea where other types of vegetation hardly grow.

Appropriately, India’s national environment policy, which calls for supporting the sustainable management of mangrove stretches along the country’s coastal belt, has identified four sites in Karnataka. In this State mangrove forests are found flourishing in the coastal belt between Mangalore and Karwar.

However, the mangrove stretches are mostly narrow and steep in places due to the presence of the mighty Western Ghats. As a result, the mangrove ecosystem of the southern west coast is small in size, less dense and less complicated in terms of tidal creek network.

Currently, India accounts for 2.60 per cent of the world’s total mangrove cover with an area of 4827 sq. km. While the east coast accounts for 57 per cent of the total mangroves found in the country, the west coast boasts of 23 per cent of the country’s mangrove wealth. The remaining 23 per cent mangroves are found flourishing in the Andaman and Nicobar islands in the Bay of Bengal. However the Tsunami waves did cause serious and widespread damage to the mangrove forest stretches there.

One of the largest and most productive stretches of mangrove forests in India are the densely-wooded and sprawling Sunderbans, shared by both West Bengal and Bangladesh. The delta of the Mahanadi in Orissa and that of Krishna and Godavari in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh are known for their rich mangrove stretches. In Tamil Nadu Pitchavaram-Vedaranyam stretch of mangroves spread over an area of more than 10,000 hectares was not long ago a well-known tourist spot and popular locale for shooting Tamil films. 

But the pictures sent down by our earth observation satellites have revealed a gradual deterioration in the mangrove eco system along both the eastern and western coastal belt of the country. Normally, mangroves are destroyed for fuel, fodder, timber and human habitation. These are also recklessly used for agriculture, aquaculture and industrial purposes.

In addition, it is now well-known that mangroves provide a safe sanctuary to a variety of flora and fauna. Moreover, a number of marine organisms including fish species, shrimps and prawns spend their entire or a part of their life cycle in the mangrove environment. As the Director of the Institute of Wood Science and Technology, Bangalore asserted, “Now, conservation of mangroves has taken priority especially after it was found that these can counter Tsunami”.

Clearly, mangroves are playing a vital role in the socio-economic life of the coastal communities. In fact, they protect the coastline and prevent erosion by collecting sediments from the rivers and streams and slowing down the flow of water. A study by the Nilgiris-based Wildlife Protection Group has shown that the dense growth of the mangrove cover came to the rescue of animals including the highly-threatened black buck and wild boars at the Point Calimere wildlife sanctuary during the Tsunami catastrophe.

Accordingly, environmentalists specializing in coastal ecology, maintain that the major threat to mangroves arise from indiscriminate tree felling for food, fodder and timber and the thoughtless conversion of mangroves into aquacultural ponds along the coast.

Other negative factors threatening mangroves include collection of fruits and discharge of industrial and domestic effluents. ”Mangroves are facing an overdose of chemical  fertilizers and pesticides which not only destroy the aquaculture farms but are detrimental to the surviving mangrove ecosystems”, they assert.

Significantly, the  violent  tidal storms that batter the low lying areas of Bangladesh around Chittagong, year after year, are traced to the  unchecked and massive destruction of mangroves in this densely populate South Asian country .

In contrast, the Sundarbans stretch of mangroves on the Indian side appears better preserved. The picturesque and panoramic Sundarbans, famous for its Royal Bengal Tiger, is a rich and luxuriant forest eco system. It yields about 80,000-tonnes of timber, 50,000-tonnes of wax and about 200-tonnes of honey a year.

Over the last two centuries, the Sunderbans have been exploited to make room for human settlement and expansion of farming activities. A population of about three million is dependent both directly and indirectly on the Sunderbans. So far it has depended on the mangrove forests for charcoal, firewood, bark and honey for their livelihood.

Fortunately, in the Sunderbans, salinity is low and the coastal gradient gentle, enabling the mangroves to extend over hundreds of kms of inland up to the high reaches of the tide. Perhaps the best-preserved mangroves in India are located in the coastal stretch of Pitchavaram in Tamil Nadu.

According to marine biologists, the species-rich mangrove eco system is so finely tuned that once disturbed it is not likely to take its original state for a long time. “The roots of mangrove plants stabilize the sand and the mud. Wherever, mangroves are removed for developmental purposes, the coastline gets exposed to rapid erosion” pointed out an environmentalist attached to the Habitat Science Teaching Community in Kerala.

Unfortunately, in India there are no stringent and well conceived laws to regulate the use of mangroves and for their conservation. Not long back mangroves used to be treated as a part of the wetland between land and sea. Importantly, realizing there contribution to ecology, of late both the Government agencies and voluntary organizations have started creating awareness about the need to conserve the rich mangrove forests. ---- INFA

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