Where the thatch screw pine (Mogali), sea grass and sand binders like beach morning glory are present, the sand dunes along the beach remained undisturbed and where they have been removed, along the RK Beach-YMCA stretch, there was severe erosion.
This is one of the findings of a survey being done by an environmental group Green Climate on the post-Hudhud scenario in the city. Also the stretches along the beach road up to Bheemunipatnam, where the casuarinas plantations, sea grass, weeds, sand binders and palm groves grew, were not affected and areas where they have been removed in the name of beautification and other reasons, the effect of cyclone is clearly visible. The casuarinas plantations that have not been disturbed reduced the wind speed in those areas.
Even as the cyclone turned life upside down in the city, a washerman Lakshmana Rao and his family were safe inside their house behind the VUDA park because of a thatch screw pine grove adjacent to it.
The Green Climate team consisting of P.V. Ramana, N. Aditya Madhav, G. Deviprasad, R. Manohar, P. Omprakash, P. Sirisha, J. Rajeswari and G. Sushma, led by J.V. Ratnam, is conducting the survey to make a list of trees that survived the cyclone.
“Cyclone Hudhud has once again given us a strong reminder that sand binders, sea grass, thatch screw pine, casuarinas, and thorny bamboo have to be grown along the coast over a large areasince more Hudhuds are likely to hit the east coast”, Mr. Ratnam said.
