Susan Welcome to IWC chat on "Mangroves of India"

Vivek Hello! Susan

Susan Thanks for coming on time.

Vivek Mangroves are tropical and subtropical littoral plants growing at

the interface between land and sea. They grow on clayee soil which is flat

and sloping gently (mud-flats) and in the region where tidal action brings

in water regularly. Mangroves are found extensively in the estuarine

regions where mud-flats are wide and gently sloping. Besides estuaries,

they also inhabit the intertidal regions of shallow bays and creeks where

the environment is conducive for the growth of mangroves.

Vivek That is a starter for people who would be joining soon.

Susan Can I start by asking you to tell us in brief about your work in

Mumbai wetlands?

Vivek Yeah! I started working on Mangroves in Mumbai in 1993. I joined the

Mangrove Project of the Soonabai Godrej Foundation.

Vivek It is 1750 acres of mangrove land which was subject to several

assaults before late eighties.

Susan Welcome Jayant.

Vivek The project has a three pronged approach of research, education and

conservation.

Vivek The project which was launched in 1985 has now become a success

story and most of the mangrove awareness in Mumbai is because of this

success story. Right now we are majorly working on education and conservation.

Susan What are the awareness measures taken by you?

Vivek We are having an Interpretation Centre. Amar Deshpande is our

Education Officer. We have prepared several modules and regularly conduct

programmes comprising nature trails, slide shows, campaigns, quiz etc. for

various groups. We are also helping Government, NGOs or individuals who needs help to conserve mangroves, in any way.  This year (from June 93) we have done 50+ programmes.

Besides, I write. I have contributed to several magazines also

spoken on most of the channels through different programmes.

Susan Do mangroves exist where river & land meet ?

Most North Indian staes are without sea coast. There are no

mangroves here?

Vivek That is precisely the place where mangroves come luxuriently. Major

mangroves of the world are deltaic.

Vivek I am sorry, I read it as river meets the sea. The north Indians have no local word for mangroves because, they do not grow there.

Jayant Mangorves are considerd as waste land in our country, hence most

neglected

Vivek No! I feel they are considered dispensible and that is why

misutilised.

Susan Which are the major mangroves in Northern parts?

Jayant Vivek as I have never been in a mangorve on a trail can you tell

more about the life found in this ecosysem

Vivek The biggest mangrove in the northern India is Sunderbans. The other

important mangrove areas are: Cori Creek in Kutch, Gulf of Kutch, Bhitar

Kanika in Orissa and Mahanadi Delta.

Jayant The bengali name for mangrove is sundari hence its Sundaban am I

right ?

Susan I suppose many of these are also Ramsar sites

Vivek The mangroves are transition areas between sea and land. So they

have life from oceanic system as well as land. A brief list would be :

Mammals like jungle cat or fishing cat, wild boars, jackal, a variety of

aquatic mammals like otters, Birds, reptiles like snakes, crocs,

amphibians, fish and a variety of lower animals.

Vivek Sundari is not a word for mangroves, it is a specific mangrove tree

called Heritiera fomes. The word Sunderban has come from Sundari. That is

right.

Susan Mangroves are also nurseries for fishes.

Jayant That means they have a spectacular diverse life

save_wildlife HI PPL

Susan Hi save_wildlife!

Vivek Hi! Save Wildlife?

save_wildlife mangroves hmm

Vivek Only Sunderban is a ramsar site.

Jayant it means mangroves are a must for our fishing industry

save_wildlife how"?

save_wildlife i mean how r mangroves and fishing related?

Vivek absolutely. where will fish breed otherwise?

save_wildlife mangroves r trees

Vivek mangrove word is used for the plants in the ecosystem called mangle.

Susan Mangroves are wetlands- can have breathing roots of trees- but no

trees

Jayant the BKC & other reclamation sites in mumbai have been "reclaimed"

by destroying Mangroves

akriti ok

Vivek Yes jayant. u r right

Susan Welcome Akriti

akriti btw i'm save_wildlife...just changed my name.  how do u people know so much?

Jayant the pressures to destroy mangorves must be very great in mumbai

Vivek Mumbai is a small problem. The biggest culprit is agriculture and

aquaculture .  More than 80% of mangroves in Maharashtra have been destroyed by these two activities.

Jayant   how do yu counter this aquaculture?? i do not get this

Susan Vivek what are your views on the SethuSamudram Project? I believe it

will destroy precious mangroves

Vivek The only way to counter is by spreading awareness and fighting legal

battles. We have a hopeless political situation and courts are the only doors for us to knock.

Vivek Hi! Noooreeen, mangroves have been identified by the GoI as the

ecological hotspots along with the reefs.

Vivek.Dam will affect the sea grass beds and the coral reefs more than the  mangroves.

akriti Vivek what is ur age?

Susan Akriti, Vivek has written books on mangroves. Where can one get them

Vivek?

Vivek I am 36.

Vivek Probably BNHS will have some stock.

nooreeen i think mangroves are a relayy important part of the environment

for all species and have to be maintained

akriti sorry but i have to go now

Vivek In different parts of the world, Mangroves are called as 'mangals',

'coastal woodlands', 'tidal forests' etc. and are littoral plant

formations. There is a great confusion about the term mangroves itself.

Many people confuse mangroves as man made wetlands because of the term

"man" in the word mangroves. The Shorter Oxford Dictionary describes the

word "mangrove" as obscurely connected with the Portuguese word "mangue"

and the Spanish word "mangle" and the English word "grove" and it dates

its origin as 1613. This explaination of the origin of the word has been

largely accepted throughout the world. However, Martha Vannucci in her

book "The Mangrove and Us" points out that the word is neither Portuguese

nor Spanish and, after an exhaustive search, she concludes that the word

"mangue" derives from the national language of Senegal. She comments that

it was probably adopted by the Portuguese, and later modified by the

Spanish, as a result of their exploration of the coast of West Africa.

nooreeen i think that just the fact that they provide an important shelter

for the many endangered species makes them a valuble peice of natural

heritage and we CANNOT afford to lose them

Jayant vivek can you spell out more on auquaculture

nooreeen akriti and i work together in a club bascically focusing on the

tiger and we are trying to promote awareness on that topic, like to

underpriveleged children who should really understand whats going on. we

have done quite a number of workshops. but for some time we are doing a

project on the yamuna and water related problems

Susan Excellent Nooreen

Vivek Aquaculture is a classic example. They need the mangroves because

the prawn spawn is only found in the mangroves as they breed there. Then

the area is cleared right within the mangroves and the crops are taken.

nooreeen Thank you but we want to do a lot more in the water department like making everyone feel a part of this project because it relates to everyone and so

we are doing a interactive session with cancer pateints and underpriveleged children as normal school kids

quaggalife Hi every one sorry I am late

Vivek most often the prawn farms are short lived and you have to shift to

other sites. The abundant farms can neither support mangroves, nor they

can support agriculture, leaving acres and acrs of land as saline blanks.

Jayant but isint this hurting them more as the next generation of prawns

hve no mangroves to spawn                    

Susan Shoot your questions quaggalife!

Vivek We have several such examples throughout the world in Gambia,

Kalimantaan in Indonesia, and several others.

Jayant it reminds of the jhoom cultivation

quaggalife Yes Susan I am just catching up with the discussion.     

nooreeen so where do the next generation shift to.   

Jayant can education not solve this problem

nooreeen i think it can    until people are aware how do we find a solution ar execute it

quaggalife Tellme how why should a urbanite should know about mangroves

what difference does it make to them?

Vivek We are all literate not educated. That is the problem. Besides being

environmental, these are social issues. They have a full circle starting

from civics and ending at politics.      

Jayant true, but prawns must be a very lucrative business and hence very

powerful lobbies      

Vivek Hi! Quaggalife! You have a valid question. Do you live in a coastal

city?

nooreeen it depends on the body who is trying to reach the urbanite they

have to strecth out in a way which captures the ordinary urbanites

interest and that lays stress on the topic and the group

quaggalife True very true but it is also correct to say that there  are

enough people around who are concerned

quaggalife No I amin Delhi that spends a lot on hype about environment

Vivek No! there aren't enough people! Unless every individual or atleast

80% of the Junta adopts a conscious life, we cannot say there are enough

people?

nooreeen that is a problem unless among children, for example, you let

them grow in an atmosphere that is concerned about these problems, like a

school which is the learning centres for children and a perfect place to

encourage this type of learning

Jayant are mangroves found in chilika?

Vivek environment is not a subject but a way of life.

nooreeen make them concerned

Vivek Noor you are right but again, we need to concentrate on various

levels. We cannot wait till children grow up?

Jayant a way f life which we have left far far behind in our quest for

urbanisation

nooreeen for many people they dont understand the relationship of the

environment with our life.teach it as a way of life so that they respect

forever

Vivek Urbanisation can be achieved along with the environment friendly

lifestyle. That was the success story of the Godrej Mangrove Project

quaggalife Ok lets talk about schools. They get Rs5000 from state

government and Rs1000 fron center for environment education. What they

encourage is subscription of Times of India and Hindustan times at Rs90

each anual subscription. It has all the environmnet of wrong type isnt it

quaggalife See its like this 26 pages of 6lakhs copy every day in schools

for say 300 days is actually that many trees are cut for a price of only

Rs90 ridiculous

Susan Is there a website about the Godrej project? IWC can give a link to

this

nooreeen put environmental science as an extra curricular activity as well

as in the curriculum and join the organization doing something like WWF or

CSE

Vivek godrej.com/mangroves

quaggalife Its there and now supreme court has also given a directive on a

national level but who cares

nooreeen how do you reach adults who are not concerned

Vivek Godrej website is also on the link of Wetlands International site.

Susan Thanks, Vivek

quaggalife Most of the schools are ignoring this giving parents objections

as n excuse

Susan IWC is trying to attract the adult who is casual about environ &

wildlife.

Vivek Jayant, Chilika has very little mangroves. You know about the

shifting sand bars of chilika?

Jayant No

nooreeen who knows about the mongooses and how they are endangered, out of  the city delhi almost no one, nil. i learnt about it through a documentary

quaggalife how

nooreeen so the different smaller , insignificant problems that are

becoming big should be put up on IWC chat

Jayant all i know of chilika is that a prime wetland had fallen to a big

indutrial house for prawn farming

Vivek Chilika is only separated from the Bay of Bengal by sand bars. Due

to oceanic currents and wave actions these sand bars are not permanent and

the opening to sea keeps on shifting. Interesting?

Susan Can you suggest a topic for next month's chat?

Jayant Small mamals

quaggalife Susan lets have topic say should the animals have legal rights

nooreeen ya maybe that

Vivek I want all of you to give consideration to the impacts of river

linking on mangroves.

Vivek We may even lose Sunderbans.

quaggalife Susan lets have topic say should the animals have legal

rights

Jayant Right in human courts? ..

Susan That is an interesting topic

Jayant yes that would be disaster

quaggalife start the discussion first rest we will see

Susan Sahara City is coming up in Sunderbans-despite it being a Ramsar

site?

nooreeen if we lose the sunderbans we would have lost a huge peice of

natural wealth

quaggalife Vivek Sunderban is now Sahara's property

Vivek Everytime I spoke to Suresh Prabhu, he answered that he has this as

a concern and wants to carry out a study. You know what these studies are?

Jayant yes

nooreeen most studies take two to five years and end up telling us nothing

new

Vivek Sunderban is above Ramsar, it is a World Heritage Site. It is also a

transnational ecosystem.

Vivek Sahara Project should be condemned at every level.

Jayant but oil is being explored right there by a dutch firm

Jayant It seems Ongc too has found gas there

nooreeen dont you guys sometimes wonder how wonderful india is and how

divers in culture as well as nature and its diffeerent ecosystems ad

habitats

nooreeen isnt the sunderban a UNESCO site as well

Vivek Yes noor, that is what I said, the World Heritage Site which is

nominated by UNESCO

Vivek Sunderban is a recent gold mine. As I said in the begining,

mangroves being dispensible, that is the least of the issues for

everybody.

noreeen ok well i have to go

Jayant vivek, susan and all others I have to call off, nice to be here

today.Special thanks to Susan as I would have missed this enlightining

chat

Vivek Other important issue is progressive weakening of CRZ

Jayant thanks vivek for a very "dil se" chat

Jayant vivek, susan and all others I have to call off, nice to be here

today.

Susan Thanks Noor

Vivek Yes! It was nice talking to everybody. Shall we adjourn Susan?

Jayant bye

Susan Vivek, you have inspired such a lively talk. You must log in more

often

Susan Yes and thanks again Vivek.

quaggalife Bye what is the next topic

Susan We will announce it in the next ezine.

Vivek I will try. But I have hectic schedules. Also my son is 1 yr. old

and he demands my attention for whatever little time I give for home.

quaggalife is the chat over

Susan For today yes. Log in next month same time same day !

Vivek Bye Everybody!