Kerala - Kannur   

Efforts to clean up mangrove areas in districts under way

Staff Reporter

Under Habitat Improvement Scheme of Forest and Wildlife Department

PROTECTING LIFE: Garbage dumped in the mangrove area at Valapattanam in Kannur being removed on Wednesday.

KANNUR: Mangrove-rich wetland areas of the Kannur and Kozhikode districts will be cleaned up as the Forest and Wildlife Department has begun steps to remove wastes dumped into these excellent habitat systems for large number of life forms.

The efforts to clean up the mangrove areas of the districts started on the World Forestry Day on Wednesday with their formal launching at the Valapattanam grama panchayat. The steps to remove wastes from the mangrove wetlands in Kunhimangalam, Ezhimala, Payyannur, Pazhayangadi, Chempallikkundu, Keeriyad, Ayiramthengu, Valapattanam, Kattampally, Edakkad, Dharmadam, and Thalassery in Kannur and Azhikyur, Monthal, Kolavipalam, Analikkadavu, Akalapuzha, Eranhikkal, Pavangad, Elathur, Kottoli, Olavanna, Beypore, Chaliyam and Kadalundi were under way under the Habitat Improvement Scheme of the Forest and Wildlife Department.

According to Forest officials, mangrove forests were treated as habitat systems as they had innumerable number of life forms ranging from lesser mammals to several invertebrate species and were seen as abode for several species of resident and migratory birds. Accumulated wastes being dumped in the mangrove areas were a threat to the survival of the mangrove areas.

"General concept is that mangrove areas are for dumping wastes and their real ecological value is not realised by the public,'' O. Jayarajan, Assistant Conservator of Forests, Social Forestry Division, said here on Wednesday. The Habitat Improvement Scheme also envisaged creation of public awareness on the real importance of the mangroves which could retain water, cleanse pollutants and prevent soil erosion, among other things, he said.

Though mangroves were tolerant to toxic materials to an extent, non-degradable wastes and poisonous pollutants were causing gradual deaths to mangrove forests. The scheme included removal of these wastes and their scientific disposal. A waste management programme and cleaning strategy would be adopted in the areas where there was greater threat caused by pollution, he said.

The mangrove areas along the State's coastline have shrunk over the years as large extent of mangroves had been reclaimed and converted for developmental activities. According to official figures, Kannur district accounts for 83 per cent of the total mangrove areas in the State. The district is estimated to have 3,500 hectares of mangroves out of the total 4,200 ha in the State. It is followed by Ernakulam with 250 ha and Kozhikode with 200 ha.

Mr. Jayarajan said an inventory survey and mapping would be initiated in the second phase of the programme. It was for verifying the exact extent of mangroves areas in the region and for assessing the mangrove forests under private possession. He also said that the entire mangrove areas in the two districts would be fenced. Voluntary organisations would be involved to detect offenders who dumped waste into the mangrove areas, he added. The department had conducted local-level workshops to create awareness, he said.

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