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Plan to promote mangroves

Rajesh Nair

National Remote Sensing Agency to identify spots

PUDUCHERRY: The Government is planning to promote mangrove plantation, a natural buffer to protect coastal region from the brunt of storms and waves, along its 45 km coastline in a big way.

As a beginning, the Forest Department has sought the help of National Remote Sensing Agency, Hyderabad, to map the entire coastline for locating suitable areas for the plantation. The Government is in the process of giving the nod after the agency estimates the cost for mapping, a senior official in the Forest Department told The Hindu .

Already the territory had mangrove forests spread across 35 hectares in Thengathittu at the Ariankuppam Estuary.

A good part of the mangrove cover was lost due to encroachment and dumping of building waste over the last few years. Now an attempt was being made by the department, with the help of a few students, two research scholars in the Department of Ecology and Environment Sciences, Pondicherry University, R. Saravanan and K. Ilangovan, to make up for the lost area. Mangrove buffer zones would be set up in the Ariankuppam, Veerampattinam and Nallavadu.

"Already we have planted mangrove saplings in 25 acres, some of them managed through our own resources and the rest under a package in the Tsunami Rehabilitation Programme and Green Coast project," Mr. Ilangovan said. The Green Coast project is managed by Netherlands-based voluntary organisation, Wetlands International.

Arinakuppam estuary had seven species of true mangroves, with Avicenni Marina variety being the predominant one. The area also had 21 species of mangrove associates, he added.

A study revealed that the mangrove diversity in Ariankuppam estuary region was closely related to the famous Pichavaram mangroves, 45 km south of Puducherry.

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