 Sudeshna

Mangroves
 Mangroves are various kinds of trees up to medium
height and shrubs that grow in saline coastal sediment
habitats in the tropics and subtropics.
 With their roots submerged in water, they thrive in
hot, muddy, salty conditions.
 They are extremely important to our own well-being
and to the health of the planet.
 They include a filtration system that keeps out much
of the salt.
Continued
Complex root
system that
holds the
plants upright
in the shifting
sediments
where land
and water
meet is seen in
them.
Uses of mangroves
 Biological Diversity -
 They provide food, nesting and nursery areas for many
animals which include at least 200 over fish species, 20
reptiles and amphibian species, 15 mammal species
and over a 150 bird species.
 Remove the mangroves and many of these species
might be driven to extinction, invariably affecting us as
source of food and water and many other ways.
More uses
 Environmental Protection –
 Mangroves protect the coastline by acting as "wave
breaks”.
 They stabilize coastlines and serve as natural
barriers/protectors against huge storms, preserving
coastlines.
 They act as wind breaks which reduce the force of
winds, lowering the chances of property getting
destroyed in wind storms.
Some more uses
 Retain, Concentrate , Recycle Nutrients –
 Mangroves retain, concentrate, and recycle nutrients
and also trap debris, sediments, excess nutrients and
toxicants through their natural filtering processes and
this improves water quality of tidal rivers that drain
through the mangroves.
Uses..
Provide
Resources -
The
mangroves
provide us
with food and
water,
medicinal
herbs, timber,
fuel, and
materials.
Importance of mangroves
 They are the buffer zone between the land and the sea.
 Mangroves protect the soil from erosion.
 They play an invaluable role as a nature’s shield against
cyclones, ecological disasters and as protector of
shorelines.
 They are a breeding and nursery grounds for a variety
of marine animals.
Continued
 Harbor a variety of life forms like invertebrates, fish,
amphibians, reptiles, birds and even mammals like
tigers.
 Good source of timber, fuel and fodder.
 Main source of income generation for shoreline
communities like fisher folk.
 Save the marine diversity, which is fast diminishing.
 Purify the water by absorbing impurities and harmful
heavy metals and help us to breathe a clean air by
absorbing pollutants in the air.
Role of mangroves in tsunami
prone areas..
 Dense mangrove forests growing along the coasts of
tropical and sub-tropical countries can help reduce the
devastating impact of tsunamis and coastal storms by
absorbing some of the waves’ energy.
 When the tsunami struck India's southern state of
Tamil Nadu on 26 December, for example, areas in
Pichavaram and Muthupet with dense mangroves
suffered fewer human casualties and less damage to
property compared to areas without mangroves.
Mangroves destroyed due to
human activities
 Despite their critical importance, mangroves are
disappearing at an alarming rate around the world.
 Human development, industrial activity, and
aquaculture are rapidly replacing these salt-tolerant
trees and the ecosystems they support.
 In just in the last decade, at least 35 percent of the
world's mangroves have
been destroyed.
 That’s a rate of loss that
exceeds the disappearance
of tropical rainforests.
Exploitation of mangroves
 Approximately 35% of mangrove area was lost during
the last several decades of the twentieth century (in
countries for which sufficient data exist), which
encompass about half of the area of mangroves.
 The united nations environment program also
estimated shrimp farming causes a quarter of the
destruction of mangrove forests.
 Likewise, the 2010 update of the World Mangrove
Atlas (WMA) indicated a fifth of the world's mangrove
ecosystems have been lost since 1980.
The need to conserve
 When we destroy the mangroves, not only do we
destroy the ecosystems that function naturally, we also
lose the free services mangroves provide us with and
have to pay to replace them.
 If the mangroves are destroyed, there will be
ecosystem degradation and species endangerment,
and loss of wetlands.
 Declines in fish and wildlife
population, floods, problem
in water quality will also occur.
 Thus there arises need to
conserve mangroves. Conserve
Conservation of mangroves
 Afforestation.(distinct conservation effort)
 Legislation.(including laws and policies)
 Monitoring and Surveys.(land and aerial, etc.)
 Protection.(including conservation, parks and reserves
development, etc.)
 Recommendations.
 Soil conservation.
 Status studies.
Sustainable use
 Culture (Agriculture, Aquaculture - capture fisheries,
culture fish, etc.).
 Natural products useful for medicinal purposes,
(drugs, etc.);
Other products (timber, salt production, honey, etc.).
 Socio-economic aspects.
 Tourism.
How to grow mangroves?
 Mangrove saplings could be easily grown in the
nurseries with the locally available seeds/wildlings.
 Necessary help for raising saplings could be secured
from the local forest department or organizations like
M.S.Swaminathan Research Foundation, Coastal
community Development Agency.
 Develop mangrove plantations near the existing
shrimp farms and near by mangrove areas through
planting of mangrove saplings.
Where to grow mangroves?
 Plant mangroves where ever they can be grown on the
river and sea side of shrimp ponds in the inter-tidal
zone.
 Planting of mangroves in drain canals and effluent
treatment ponds could improve the water quality by
absorbing nutrients and other organic pollutants.
 The mangrove plantations along the bunds help in
stabilization of banks and prevent soil erosion during
floods and reduce sedimentation of ponds during
flood.
Conservation in Andaman and
Nicobar islands
• In this area, monitoring of mangroves is equally
important to study the changes.
• Therefore, the use satellite imageries has to be adopted
for obtaining authentic area information.
• The Forest Department in the islands has completely
banned extraction of mangrove fuel wood, and is
endeavoring towards conservation of mangroves.
• An attempt has been made in this paper to bring out
various strategies contemplated for management and
conservation of mangroves in the island.
Conservation in Andhra Pradesh
 In Southern Coast of Andhra Pradesh, few small
patches of mangrove forests occur where-ever mud
flats are formed in the backwaters of less important
rivers or rivulets.
 But these forests are mostly out side the control of
Forest Department and are degraded and dwindling.
 The Forest Department has taken up measures for
conservation and regeneration for the improvement of
Mangrove forests which are under it control.
 The importance, scope and strategies for improving
the mangrove vegetation of the State is described.
Conservation in Maharashtra and
Goa.
 On August 21-24, the mission visited four sites of the
experimental afforestation at the Maharashtra coast.
 Three government agencies, therefore, assisted the
mission, i.e., the NIO at Goa, Forest Department of Goa,
and Social Forestry Circle of Maharashtra State.
 The mission worked under the following terms of
reference:
 1. Visit to the areas of the mangrove experimental
plantations, as well as those that may be put under the
same activity.
 2. Discussions on matters relating to (a) propagule
collection, (b) propagule visibility and equality control(c)
propagule storage (d) identification of species suitable for
different sites, and (e) establishment of nurseries.
Thus saving them is important
 The destruction of mangrove ecosystems is caused
mainly because of the conservation benefits of
mangroves not receiving importance and the little
understanding of the role mangroves play for
sustenance of other economic systems.
 This has led to mangroves being considered as
wastelands with little use, and no value.
 But now assuming their advantages , we should see to
it that they are conserved.