Maha mangrove cover shrinking, conservation necessary to prevent calamities

PUNE: On the occasion of International Mangroves Day on Monday, July 26, Mahesh Shindikar, assistant professor, Biology, Applied Sciences Department, College of Engineering Pune (COEP), stressed on the importance of mangroves and the need to conserve them to prevent coastal devastation

PUNE: On the occasion of International Mangroves Day on Monday, July 26, Mahesh Shindikar, assistant professor, Biology, Applied Sciences Department, College of Engineering Pune (COEP), stressed on the importance of mangroves and the need to conserve them to prevent coastal devastation.

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Speaking at the national webinar on “mangrove ecosystems; understanding and conservation of mangroves”, Shindikar explained, “Mangroves are a group of trees and shrubs that live in the coastal intertidal (area of seashore covered at high tide and uncovered at low tide) zone and are important to us because they help stabilise coastline ecosystems and prevent erosion. They also provide natural infrastructure and protection to the nearby populated areas by absorbing storm surge impacts (abnormal rise in water generated by storm) during extreme natural calamities.”

A former senior research fellow of the Agharkar Research Institute, Pune and Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi, Shindikar said, “Along the Maharashtra coast, estuaries and creeks are the important habitats that harbour mangrove vegetation. Out of the total 68 sampling sites identified along the Konkan coast; 15 are from the Thane and Mumbai districts, 14 from Raigad, 22 from the Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts with 17 creeks. Unfortunately however, there is very limited space left along the western coast for these mangroves to spread and they are shrinking, thereby not being able to provide sufficient tools of resilience to natural calamities like high tides and cyclones.”

Shindikar’s research has found that while the mangroves in Maharashtra were explored for more than a century as part of botanical interest and environmental studies, there is no clear-cut information regarding the number of species, area covered and so on. A majority of the mangrove forests in the state have disappeared due to anthropogenic (caused by human beings and their activities) pressures in recent years. Over the past 25 years, nearly 40% reduction in the mangrove cover of the state has been due to human interference, with habitat conversion and felling of trees being the two major threats to mangroves. The estuary or creek ecosystems in general and the mangrove ecosystems in particular are under tremendous pressure from urbanisation and industrialisation.

Shindikar emphasised that the key issue is not just destruction but degradation of mangrove ecosystems through pollution, accumulation of silt, changes in salinity, loss of biodiversity and even the economy for if there are no mangroves, there will be coastal devastation which has led to an estimated loss of $650 billion as stated by a recent study in USA.

“It is therefore important that the government focuses on diverse aspects of mangrove ecosystems, the scope for mangrove conservation as business and government policies related to sustainable coastal and mangrove management,” Shindikar said.