TIRUVARUR
The Forest Department has plans to strengthen mechanisms for protection of Muthupet mangrove forest on an expanse of 12 square kilometres, with the funding it has sought from the State Government for restoration works after the cyclone Gaja.
The focus areas will be replacing the overgrowth of prosopis juliflora at some places with mangrove vegetation and desiltation of the canals criss-crossing the expanse encompassing six reserve forests: Muthupet, Thuraikadu, Tamrankottai, Thampikottai vadakadum, Maravakkadu, and Palanjur, according to official sources.
The mangroves were effective in slowing the speed of oncoming waves when the cyclone made landfall. The mangroves and the leafy canopies dissipated wave surge and sheltered the land from the high cyclonic winds.
The Forest Department's perception is that spending money on regeneration of mangroves is worthwhile since the destruction wrought by cyclones several-fold could be prevented.
The Muthupet mangrove wetland receives inflow of fresh water during the extended period of Northeast monsoon (October to January) through the drainage routes of the Cauvery delta. From February to September fresh water discharge into the mangrove is limited and insignificant.
Plenty of artificial canals established under mangrove forest promoting programs have to be desilted to sustain the forest cover, a senior official said. Constituting woody plants, mangroves associated with a variety of microbes and fungi generally grow to a height of one and a half metres above mean sea level in the intertidal zone of marine coastal environments or estuarine margins.
The Forest department is confronted with a harsh reality of the continued loss of mangrove forests causing serious ecological and socio- economic impacts, especially on the coastal communities that rely directly on mangrove products and services for their livelihoods.
Environmentalists have been impressing upon the forest department the vital necessity to safeguard and, if possible, increase the area of mangrove forests reasoning out that the the organic carbon stored in mangrove soils can remain sequestered for thousands of years and these types of forests serve as effective carbon sinks.