Kerala - Kollam   

Environmentalist picks loopholes in proposed Ordinance on mangroves

Staff Reporter

Says law to conserve all the mangrove spreads of the State needed

IN NEED OF PROTECTION: A view of the Kattukandam mangrove in Kollam district.

KOLLAM: Environmental activist N. Ravi says the proposed ordinance to protect the mangrove forests of the State will not serve the purpose if it is going to exempt mangrove coverage of less than 50 acres. He was commenting on the recent statement made by Forest Minister Benoy Viswom in this connection.

The Minister, while stating that the Government is considering an ordinance to declare mangrove forests as protected areas, also said that mangrove forests with less 50 acre coverage would be exempted from the notifications of the proposed ordinance.

Professor Ravi, who retired as the head of the Kollam SN College Department of Botany, said that such a clause in the proposed ordinance can serve to defeat the very purpose for which it is intended. It will mean that most of the mangrove forests in the State will not be considered worthy for conservation. He pointed out that in spite of having several mangrove forests, Kerala is the only coastal State in the country that does not find mention in the National mangrove map. According to a report published by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, "there are only isolated pockets of mangroves in Kerala." Prof. Ravi said that it is a fact that mangrove spreads worth the mention as mangrove forests are found only in the northern districts of the State and there too only a handful will qualify for conservation under the proposed ordinance.

In such a situation, it is doubtful whether even Kumarakom and Pathiramanal mangroves will qualify for protection under the proposed ordinance. Coming to the southern parts of the State, all the estuaries and lakes have many small and large stretches of mangroves.

The two important ones among them are the Kattukandam mangroves on the Kayamkulam Lake at Ayiramthengu and the Asramam mangroves on the Ashtamudi Lake, both in Kollam district.

Both these are very important mangrove spreads from the biological and environmental point of view. While the Kattukandam is a 12-acre mangrove spread and the only one in State with seven mangrove species, the Asramam spread is much less. The latter has been facing destruction by tourism promotion activities for the past two decades, Prof. Ravi alleged.

"It will be a great tragedy if both these spreads go the way scores of other mangrove forests, without getting the benefit of the proposed ordinance because they are small in size."

He said that if mangroves of less than 50 acres are left out, hundreds of mangrove spreads, including Kattukandam and Asramam, will fall under the axe of the tourism promotion agencies.

He suggested that if the Minister is committed to mangrove conservation, a law to conserve all the mangrove spreads of the State irrespective of the size should be enacted.

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