MANGROVE INITIATIVES IN KANNUR - Guest Post from K.V Uthaman

Initial protection before planting at Nettur on the bank of Kuyyalipuzha during 1997

Mangrove raised during 1997 is just coming up at Nettur

Mangrove raised during 1998 is coming up at Nettur-photo of 2000


Mangrove plantation during 2004 at Nettur

Mangrove restoration is not a pipe dream. Here is an example of what dedicated work can do.

Now read on what Uthaman writes.


MANGROVE INITIATIVES IN KANNUR

Mangrove forests are comprised 0f special plant community, which are salt tolerant and thrive in intertidal zones of sheltered tropical shores and estuaries. Mangrove trees have specially adapted aerial and salt-filtering roots and salt-excreting leaves that enable them to occupy the saline wetlands where other plant life cannot survive. Mangrove species can propagate successfully in a marine environment because of special adaptations like viviparity. Mangrove forests are vital for healthy coastal ecosystems. The forest detritus, consisting mainly of fallen from the mangroves, provides leaves and branches nutrients for the marine environment and supports immense varieties of sea life in intricate food webs associated directly through detritus or indirectly through the planktonic and epiphytic algal food chains.

Mangroves are highly productive habitat. They stabilize shorelines, providing them with protection from storm surges and ocean currents. Mangroves serve as a buffer zone between land and sea. Mangroves help prevent soil erosion & reclaim land from seas. They serve as a breeding area and nursery grounds for a number of marine organisms. An estimated 75% of fish caught commercially spend some time in the mangrove or are dependent on food chains, which derive from these coastal forests. Mangroves shelter for many wildlife species. The surface soil of mangrove swamp is alternatively inundated and drained. It supports animals such as crabs, amphibians, reptiles, air-breathing fishes, and mammals, whose distributions are governed by degree of tidal penetration and by nature of the substratum. Sediments trapped by the mangrove roots prevent silting of adjacent marine habitat. Mangrove plays a great role in nutrient cycling & carbon export. There is constant movement of living matter into and out of the mangrove swamp. They serve as a reservoir in the tertiary assimilation of waste.

Kerala had good extent of mangroves over 700 Km². But most of them destroyed in the flood of development. They were treated as wastelands. A report by Dr. Chand Basha shows the extent as 16.7 Km² during 1992. At present only a few pockets of remnants are found in the estuaries of Kerala. Major portion of existing mangroves come across in Kannur District. Kerala Forest Department initiated protection and afforestation of mangroves during 1997. The mangroves raised during that period are coming up well. The regeneration works of mangroves started with ‘rubber band’ technology where in the wildling/seedling is tied, to a bamboo stake/splits which is driven in mud flat, by rubber band. This was warranted for protecting the seedling from the wave action felt in shores. Afterward the seedlings were raised in nursery and planted in the field giving support with bamboo stakes. The mangrove afforestation works at Thalassery, Kannur, were done when I served as Range Officer.

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Thank you Uthaman .That sure is an eye opener. I would like to get more success stories from you.

The Bornean Orangutan that Acted as a Peacemaker

The latest issue of journal Primates has a very fascinating paper on a Bornean Orangutan that acted as a peacemaker in a dispute.

It was Dr Tomoyuki Tajima of Kyoto University in Japan, who recorded the behaviour along with his colleague Mr Hidetoshi Kurotori, a keeper at the Tama Zoological Park in Tokyo. The intervention by the Orangutan ended the squabbles to ensure that they do not get out of control. It is the first time that an orangutan has been seen behaving in this way.

The conclusions were arrived at from observing five orangutans, comprising two adults, two juveniles and an infant, housed at the Tama Zoological Park. During this time, one of the juveniles, a six-year-old female named Kiki, was introduced to the group. A much older female called Chappy, estimated to be 34 years old, became repeatedly aggressive toward Kiki, and was observed chasing or physically attacking kiki on 28 separate occasions. During 19 of these squabbles, another orangutan intervened, physically stepping between the two squabbling apes, to separate them. The peacemaker was an elder female orangutan called Gypsy, who is estimated to be 51 years old. A young juvenile male called Poppy was also observed to step in to quell the trouble.

Similar peacemaking behaviour has been seen in gorillas and chimpanzees, but these are naturally group-living apes. Wild orangutans usually prefer to lead relatively solitary lives and it is the first time that peacemaking efforts have been recorded in them

Race to Save One of the Rarest Plant Species in the World

Scientists are working overtime to save one of the rarest plant species in the world. This is the Bastard Gumwood tree (Commidendrum rotundifolium) found on the tiny South Atlantic island of St Helena. The tree is dying.

To keep the Bastard Gumwood in existence, it has to be pollinated so that it will produce a fertile seed which in turn will grow new seedlings. This is not an easy task.

The tree is under netting to prevent insects cross-pollinating with its near neighbour, the False Gumwood. Because there are no other individuals in existence, the tree must self-pollinate, which is not happening.

Every day, botanist Phil Lambdon from Kew Gardens and his team uses small paint brushes to collect pollen grains, which they spread from one flower to another. But pollination is not happening. Scientists are flummoxed by the tree’s refusal to pollinate itself.

According to Dr Lambdon only around 1 in 10,000 pollen grains have the small genetic mutation which will allow self-pollination to take place. Scientists are keeping their fingers crossed. The only way of knowing whether the seeds produced are fertile is to plant them.

The scientists hope that these efforts will be more successful than with the St Helena Olive, which was also only found here, but which went extinct in 2003