SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT OF MANGROVES IS NEED OF THE HOUR

Why in News?

  • Mangroves are salt-tolerant vegetation that grows in intertidal regions of rivers and estuaries.
  • They are referred to as ‘tidal forests’ and belong to the category of ‘tropical wetland rainforest ecosystem’.
  • Mangroves are trees and shrub species that grow at the interface between land and sea in tropical and subtropical regions of the world

Mangroves in India:

  • Mangrove forests occupy around 2,00,000 square kilometres across the globe in tropical
  • Sundarbans in the Gangetic delta with an area of 2.12 lakh hectares (ha) supports 26 plant species of mangrove with a maximum height of more than 10 meters
  • Pichavaram in Tamil Nadu with an area of 1,100 ha supports 12 plant species growing to a height of 5 metres

Significance of Mangroves:

  • The structural complexities of mangrove vegetation create unique environments which provide ecological niches for a wide variety of
  • Mangroves serve as breeding, feeding and nursery grounds for most of the commercial fishes and crustaceans on which thousands of people depend for their
  • Mangroves give protection to the coastline and minimize disasters due to cyclones and tsunami.
  • Recent studies have shown that mangroves store more carbon dioxide than most other forests.
  • Mangroves are intermediate vegetation between land and sea that grow in oxygen deficient waterlogged soils which have Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S).
  • They perform important ecological functions like nutrient cycling, hydrological regime, coastal protection, fish-fauna production,
  • Mangroves act as shock absorbers. They reduce high tides and waves and help prevent soil

Threats:

  • Mangroves are being destroyed and facing severe threats due to urbanisation, industrialisation, and discharge of domestic sewage, industrial effluents and
  • Saltpans and aquaculture also pose major threat to the
  • 40 per cent of mangrove forests in West Coast of India have been converted into farmlands and housing colonies over the last three
  • Some of the mangrove species like Bruguiera cylindrica and Sonneratia acida are at the verge of
  • Due to shrimp farming, about 35,000 ha of mangroves have been lost in

Conserving Mangroves:

  • Suitable sites are to be identified for planting mangrove species. Mangrove nursery banks should be developed for propagation purpose
  • Environmental monitoring in the existing mangrove areas should be taken up systematically and periodically
  • Various threats to the mangrove resources and their root causes should be identified, and earnest measures should be taken to eliminate those cause
  • The participation of the local community should be made compulsory for conservation and management
  • Floristic survey of mangroves along the coast is to be taken up to prepare biodiversity atlas for mangroves
  • Potential areas are to be identified for implementing the management action plan for mangroves, especially in cyclone prone areas
  • Coastal industries and private owners need to be persuaded to actively participate in protecting and developing mangrove biodiversity
  • The forest department officials should be trained on taxonomy, biology and ecology of mangrove

Way Forward:

  • So far, none of the mangrove species has been included in the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
  • A scientific study reported that 100 per cent of mangrove species, 92 per cent of mangrove associates, 60.8 per cent of algae, 23.8 per cent of invertebrates and 21.1 per cent of fish are under threat.
  • Periodical monitoring of the mangrove forest is very much necessary to assess the status. The impact of environmental and human interference on marine flora and fauna needs tobe assessed.
  • The traditional rights of coastal communities to use the natural resources in their surrounding natural habitats for their livelihood should also be recognised on priority basis

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