Mangrove vegetation in over 200 acres in Kollam and Thrissur districts will be notified as Ecologically Fragile Land (EFL) soon.
While
being notified under the Kerala Forest (Vesting and Management of
Ecologically Fragile Lands) Act, compensation will be provided to their
owners.
Mangrove stretches on Munro Island, Vincent
and adjacent islands in the Neendakara region, Aayiramthengu, and
patches in Aalumpadi-Pottasseri in Kollam, and areas near Poochapalli
Palam, Chettuva and adjoining areas, and Gurushree in Thrissur have been
identified as the priority areas for notification.
A
team of conservation and revenue officials led by K. Sujanapal of the
Kerala Forest Research Institute, Peechi, prioritised the sites after
considering factors such as density and biodiversity supported by the
vegetation.
P.S. Easa, former director, Kerala Forest
Research Institute; N. Mohanan, scientist at the Jawaharlal Nehru
Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute, Thiruvananthapuram; K.
Mahendran, Under Secretary, Revenue Department; and A. Shanavas,
Assistant Conservator of Forest, are the members of the team which
prioritised the sites.
Legal protection
Mangroves in the Kadalundi community reserve are the only ones that enjoy some level of legal protection.
While
prioritising sites, the threat factors faced by the vegetation, its
extent, scope for landscape-level conservation, and dependence of the
local communities on them for livelihood were considered. Dr. Sujanapal
said it would be the first time in the State that mangroves would be
notified as EFL.
Kollam district, he said, was home to rare and threatened mangrove species such as
Lumnitzera racemosa
, which was restricted to a few patches in Aayiramthengu, Munro Island and the Asramam area.
Ceriops tagal
, which was considered extinct on the Kerala coast, was rediscovered on Vincent Island recently.
Though mangrove habitats in the district had largely been destroyed, there were signs of regeneration in some areas, he said.
Most
mangrove areas in the district were highly fragmented owing to
large-scale anthropogenic interference. Hence, it was difficult to
demarcate a patch of pure mangrove vegetation, he said.
In
Thrissur, mangroves were found regenerating in most of the disturbed
habitats. Yet, the increased anthropogenic interference was restricting
them from achieving specific growth and structure. Habitat conversion
was a major threat to the vegetation, Dr. Sujanapal said.
Revenue
land that lay between mangrove patches would also be acquired as part
of the landscape-level conservation drive, he said.
0 comments:
Post a Comment