Report by Bidyaluxmi Khuraijam and Vanshika
As the nation celebrated “Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav”, MH Vatavaran pledged to nurture nature and conserve it.``Mangroves are the foundation for our economies, systems, environments, and individual fulfillment. They require our consideration now and for eternity. In this light, MH Vatavaran, the Environment Society of Miranda House, organised its inaugural event on 2nd September, 2021 on the topic “The Importance of Mangroves to Environment and People : A Call to Action” with Dr. Malay Pramanik (Assistant Professor, Centre for Geo Informatics , Jamsetji Tata School of Disaster Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai), as the eminent and profound speaker of the webinar.
The session began at 4:30 pm sharp as scheduled where a considerable number of participants joined in. The webinar began with enthusiastic words of the Society Convenor, Dr. Amrita Tripathi Sheikh, who briefed the participants about the interdisciplinary reach of mangrove forest. Ishita Sukhija, General Secretary of MH Vatavaran welcomed everyone present in the session and briefly explained the importance of the topic. Afterward, the lecture commenced following the introduction of Dr. Malay Pramanik by Komal, President of MH Vatavaran.
Dr. Malay presented his well prepared and informative presentation to insight his talk. He stated that mangroves are an extraordinary ecosystem and talked about its contribution to the wellbeing , food security and protection of coastal communities not only in our country but also worldwide. He also enlightened the attendees about the several species found in mangrove forest, the unique adaptive nature of the mangrove forest and it being halophytic. Mangroves are found worldwide, from the tropics and subtropics to even temperate coastal areas and are densely distributed between 0° to 30° N/S. Dr. Malay also talked about the ‘Mangrove dependent livelihood’. The local inhabitants are dependent for ecosystem goods and services in two ways -
Firstly for income that comes through selling ecological products.
Secondly, mangroves shield the habitants from storms, cyclones and tsunamis by absorbing energy from the flowing water and offer shoreline stabilization. Other important ecosystem services provided by mangroves include climate regulation by capturing more than 5 times the carbon than regular rainforests, maintaining water quality and recreational, spiritual and cultural values.
He then moved towards the various threats to this ultimate boon of nature, which included climate change, coastal development, pollution, agriculture, aquaculture and logging. For better understanding, he divided these causes into natural and anthropogenic:
The natural causes consisted of sea level rise, variation in salinity, increased frequency of cyclones, depression and degradation of embankments.
Whereas on the other hand the anthropogenic causes were overexploitation, aquafarming, conversion to agricultural land and increase in human settlements.
Dr. Malay expressed his concern while discussing the change in forest density and coastal erosion. He depicted this destruction caused in different parts of mangroves worldwide through tables which gave a clear view about the condition of mangroves globally. He also presented the state of Indian mangrove forests via a pie chart.
He further discussed the case of Sunderbans, a mangrove region in the delta formed by the confluence of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna Rivers in the Bay of Bengal. He also took the attendees on a virtual trip to Sunderbans.
Dr. Malay stated the importance of the sustainable management of the mangrove ecosystem which includes practice of sustainable aquaculture, fisheries and silviculture. He concluded the lecture by emphasising the importance of Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.
The lecture was followed by a Q&A session. Gurnoor Kaur, Joint Secretary of MH Vatavaran picked up the questions one by one, which were beautifully answered by Dr. Malay.
The session was very insightful and enlightened the attendees about the importance of mangroves and why its conservation is the need of the hour. The meeting was closed with the vote of thanks by Shreya Pandey, the Blogging Head of MH Vatavaran.
Well written