Join Hands to Save & Plant a Mangroves Trees : The Unique Forests that Survive at The Interface of Land, River and Sea !

💞🌳🌿🌱 World Environment Day 🍃🙏

Join Hands to Save & Plant a Mangroves Trees :  The Unique Forests that Survive at The Interface of Land, River and Sea  ! 

We are facing  more cyclone in present times

So let me remind you Mangroves;

- acts as buffer & reduce impact of cyclones & storm surge.

- they break the wind force

- provide habitat to animals during cyclone or otherwise

- they reduce pollution. 

We just need to protect them. 

So how it works. Mangroves create a maze & dense habitat. With species which are salt tolerant & special adaptations. They act like buffer & consume the winds & energy. So after passing the storms get dampen. You must have read in ‘Theory of Vibration’. 

They are prop roots. In mangrove ecosystem they are adventitious support roots. They Grow down from lateral branches, in a way support trees, with doing other root functions. Additionally roots buffer against damage to coasts & enhance biodiversity & carbon sequestration.

These are called as pneumatophores. Mangrove ecosystem has high amount of soil moisture & salt. To take air trees here build special Aerial roots. Which come out from ground & can grow upto 30 cm. Then air is supplied to all parts of a tree. Natural filters. 

Now as thick this mangrove belt is, more effective it will be in resistance to cyclones & other disasters. They provide habitat to numerous wildlife species which makes the system healthy & balanced. 

Mangrove ecosystem is not static. It is dynamic, keeps changing. With size variety of landscape increases. You see here a small grassland inside mangrove belts. On one side destruction & on other creation. 

Habitat to not only herbivores but also hypercarnivorous apex predator like this. One of the largest in crocodilian species on planet, whose size can go upto 6 metre inlength. A salt water crocodile. This one basking in sun at Sunderban. A stable & balanced system. 

Enough reasons to protect them.

Save Mangroves 🌿🍂

The unique mangroves located along Bharat (Hindustan )7,516-km coastline are in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The world’s largest mangrove forests in Sunderbans, West Bengal, are also featured in the list. The list was released by the MSI and the Goa state biodiversity board at the National Mangrove Conference in Dona Paula, Goa . 

" Importance of wetlands & mangrove in human & animal lives." people should understand the importance. 

Wetlands have been an integral part of Mumbai, Thane & Navi Mumbai kharghar. Even before its development began there were many natural water as well as sea water bodies in Mumbai & Navi Mumbai kharghar & Thane . There are quite a few sectors in Konkan & Mumbai coastline which has water bodies, inter tidal zones, coastal regulated zones and holding ponds, where rain water or tidal water gets stored or accumulated and thereby saving city from getting flooded.

What are wetlands and why are they important?

Wetland is a natural ecosystem which is flooded by water, natural or sea, provides habitat to numerous aquatic and marine lives. It consists of both living and non living organisms which in turn helps animals, birds, local as well as migratory, and humans in many ways. There are various kinds of aquatic lives which reproduces its off springs in these wetlands. These living non living entities help each other and humans in innumerable ways. Every living being is inter-dependent on these wetlands in many ways. For example many fishes like Trout’s, Shrimps, clams, crabs and others depends on these wetlands for breeding shelter and food before returning back to mainstream river or sea. Migratory birds like sandpipers, black headed ibis, plovers, herons and many others coming from far away countries gets attracted towards these wetlands for food, shelter, breeding and for warmer climate.   

These wetlands are critically valuable to humans as well. They help cities from flooding, help improve water quality, controls erosion of soil, helps absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and also it gives aesthetic value to the city. Wetlands are always rich in biodiversity like plants, animals, birds, micro organisms which indirectly helps human race with oxygen, increase in pollination of plants, waste water treatment and many other ecological benefits including climate change. During heavy rains or overflowing rivers or dams, these wetlands store excess water, slows down or controls the flow so as it gets evenly distributed. The root of the wetland plants also controls the flowing water thereby saving the cities from inundation or floods. This is a unique characteristic of wetlands. 

With wetlands comes rich biodiversity and such biodiversity not only attracts birds animals but humans as well, where humans travel for recreational activities like hiking, bird watching, and trailing. Wetlands are also surrounded by mangroves. Mangroves also help in controlling soil erosion, acts against the waves during high tide thereby preventing cities from getting flooded. Mangroves along with sea grass and surrounding vegetation plants filter and trap sediments, pollutants thereby preventing them from flowing into the main stream and helping in prevention from contamination. They also absorb and store carbon from the atmosphere so that helps maintaining pollution level to a certain extent. 

Mumbai , Thane, Navi Mumbai Kharghar is rich in biodiversity because of presence of mangrove creek and wetlands. Kharghar has been playing host to various migratory birds including endangered ones because of these priceless surroundings and atmosphere. Kharghar has been fortunate to have such natural surrounding and because of such lovely atmosphere, people from many places in and around Mumbai have often been visiting here for bird watching, hiking in the hills and pandavkada waterfalls in the rainy season. Kharghar is one of the best and lucky places around metropolis like Mumbai and for Mumbaikars to have such vast biodiversity. But the way it has being getting developed by the by the local civic authorities without any planning and ignoring the fact of biodiversity and crushing the natural habitat, a day will soon arrive where navi Mumbai kharghar will become a concrete jungle and migratory birds, natural scenic atmosphere will soon become a thing of the past. 

It is high time that mumbai  & surrounding mumbai city people long with local fishermen, who has been a part of this land, needs to wake up and take a call now on protecting these wetlands, hills and water bodies. The only way to protect this heritage is to go for a sustainable development where we can retain such biodiversity along with natural habitat for years to come and give our next generation a healthier environment to live.   

Mangroves Soils are made up of sand, silt and clay in different combinations and mud actually refers to mixture of silt and clay, both of which are rich in organic matter and good to slide on . 

🌱☘️ 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙜𝙚𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙨𝙪𝙛𝙛𝙤𝙘𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙞𝙣𝙨𝙞𝙙𝙚, 𝙀𝙢𝙚𝙧𝙜𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙧𝙤𝙤𝙩𝙨 𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙧𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙨 🍂 

The mangroves in Airoli and Vikhroli have joined the likes of the Sundarbans, Bhitarkanika and Achra. According to the Mangrove Society of India (MSI) they are now counted among the 12 unique mangrove forests in the country. Covering an area of 2000 hectares, Vikhroli’s mangroves are home to more than 16 mangrove species, 82 butterfly species, 208 bird species, 13 crab species, 7 prawn species, 20 fish species and several mammals. The Airoli mangroves are spread over 1690 hectares and are visited by over 50,000 flamingoes every year. 

Santoshkumar B Pandey at 4.20PM.