Biodiversity and conservation of the Sunderbans mangroves

SUBRATA MAITY
Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya ( Agricultural University ), Faculty of Agriculture, MOHANPUR , West
Bengal – 741 252, INDIA. maity@vsnl.com

Aims
Background
Taking the above background into consideration,
attempts were made to conserve initially the tree
The mangroves of Sunderbans occupy a strategic
mangroves in the degraded forest land following
position in the World mangrove scenario by its
standardization of rehabilitation technique.
richness in genetic diversity, having large mud-flats
flooded with equinoctial tides and endemism of some Approach
genera. It is located at the east coast of India and The rehabilitation programme was undertaken
presently spreads over an area of about 4,200 km2, following, trenching and siltation method of soil work
having diverse opinion amongst different scientists and replanting of both collected fresh propagules of
about its dimension (Table 1). Though the area has 18 tress species from the natural forest and seedlings
of 3 months age established both at saline and fresh
Table 1: Area (km2) and distribution of mangrove
water conditions on the pre-silted trenches. Seedling
forest in India
nursery was established with a view to overcome the
short viability of mangrove propagules and to
Area Mathauda Sidhu Govt. of
prolong the replantation programme with the
1957 1963 India 1987
seedlings
A & N Islands 1,166 1,204 1,190 Results
Andhra Pradesh 0,186 0,184 0,200 While direct seeding of the fresh mature
Goa - - 0,200 propagules was attempted on the pre-silted soil, the
Karnataka - - 0,060 establishment of the plants varied with the species.
Maharastra - 0,622 0,330 The species like Heritiera, Nypa, Xylocarpus,
Orissa 0,121 0,120 0,150 Phoenix, were not responsive to direct seeding, but
Tamil Nadu 0,007 0,026 0,150 the species like Avicennia sp., Bruiguiera sp.,
Sunderbans 4,238 4,189 4,200 Rhizophora sp., Ceriops sp. were found to give
encouraging result.
Lumnitzera racemosa depleted to a great extent While seedlings were established at saline soil, the
along with the genetic diversity of Indian mangroves species like Avicennia sp., Aegiceros, Agialitis,
from 63 to 47 due to a number of edaphic and non- Bruiguiera sp., Rhizophora sp., Ceriops sp. were
edaphic factors, still this mangrove block is having 33 found to develop healthy seedlings with good rate of
species out of 47 species available in Indian coast and growth. But the species like Heritiera, Nypa and
are endemic to this region. Inspite of such unique Xylocarpus could established themselves only at fresh
features, due to over exploitation and change in the water condition with a considerable growth pattern.
demographic features of this Bengal basin, which has While such seedlings at the age of about 3 months
under gone a tilting phase due to geotechtonic transplanted they were found to be established at
movement of the earth, some species like Aegiceros degraded land on pre-silted soil.
corniculatum, Bruguiera gymnorhiza, Heritiera fomes,
H. minor, Kandelia kandel, Lumnitzera racemosa, Conclusion
Nypa fruticans, Rhizophora spp., are at acute state of Following combination of both direct seeding and
degradation and may be considered endangered establishment of identified species; mangrove
(Choudhury & Choudhury, 1994). As such there is an conservation/rehabilitation could be done on the
immediate need of a holistic approach to undertake degraded forestland.
suitable conservation strategy well before a collapse.
References
Choudhury B, Choudhury A. 1994. Mangroves of
Sunderbans. IUCN.